


Danganronpa: Dead and Breakfast

by shsl_cryptid



Series: shsl-cryptid's Danganronpa killing games [2]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-05-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 76,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23183116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shsl_cryptid/pseuds/shsl_cryptid
Summary: In a direct sequel to Danganronpa: Dead in the Water, Jinshi Hoshino finds himself stuck in a hotel with 11 other Ultimates, and of course, Monokuma. With only vauge memories of the outside world, he must work with the others to piece together why they're being forced to participate in a killing game.
Series: shsl-cryptid's Danganronpa killing games [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1629187
Kudos: 1





	1. Introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're reading this before finishing Danganronpa: Dead in the Water, STOP! Even just the introduction contains major spoilers for the ending. When I say this is a direct sequel, I mean it. Please go read that first and come back here when you're done!

In the basement of an abandoned hotel, the person sits alone, paying close attention to the screen in front of them. It’s currently displaying the finale of Danganronpa: Dead in the Water. Hirai Ichizo, the Mastermind, has just been executed.

The person moves to the desk in the corner of the room. They shuffle through various papers on the desk’s surface before finding it- a letter addressed to them, from Hirai Ichizo, with a note written on the envelope: 'ONLY open if I’m dead!!!'

The person takes one more look at the screen to ensure that Hirai is in fact dead. The survivors are leaving the ship, and Danganronpa: Dead in the Water has come to an end. They turn back to the envelope in front of them and carefully open it, unfolding the paper inside.

_Hey!_

_Guess you’re reading this ‘cause I’m dead. I mean, I don’t mind, since I’m more like Junko this way! I hope my execution was everything I wanted… or even better, that it wasn’t! How much despair would it bring to feel that disappointment in my last moments?_

_Anywho, that’s not what I’m writing about. I’m assuming if I’m dead, Seiki didn’t like her memories very much and won’t be helping me with a second killing game. Which is what I wanted to do! I mean, I had you kidnap all these loved ones for what, a motive? Two motives for that spirit medium? If that was all, then I would’ve let you kill the rest by now! My plans were this: when Dead in the Water wraps up, Seiki and I come join you in that hotel, we get it all ready for a killing game, and then you could be part of it! Maybe killed off as an example or something. Wouldn’t be as big of a cast as usual, but it’d still be great!_

_Well, that plan doesn’t work if I’m dead, right? Since you’re already there watching over them, why don’t you just do it all for me? There should be an extra note in that envelope with the login info for my blog so you can set it up to stream the whole thing online and post all the updates for my followers! Keep in mind, if you don’t do this, you’re severely disappointing me. Thank you!! I plan to watch this thing from the afterlife, so you better make it good!_

_\- Hirai Ichizo_

_P.S. Bonus points if you can track down Jinshi Hoshino and get him in there._

“He wants me to… run a killing game…?” The person speaks to themselves, disbelieving what they’ve just read. But they know his handwriting, they remember exactly when Hirai handed them this letter in person, so they know it’s the truth.

“The only reason that bastard is in my life is because my best friend was obsessed with him - they even died for his stupid killing game, and now he wants me to continue his plans for another one?” The person asks no one in particular, speaking in mild frustration as they gaze at the blank screen that had been displaying the now finished killing game.

“I can’t believe this…” They sigh and skim through the letter once again. “I guess I’ve got nothing better to do… and I know it’s what they’d want…” Their expression slowly turns from annoyance to a playful smirk. “Might as well have some fun while I’m at it.”

The person folds up the paper and puts it back in the envelope. They shuffle through the papers on the desk once again until they find a blank map of the hotel they’re in. They grab a pencil and start sketching out the modifications that would need to be made to make this place suitable for a killing game, all while formulating a plan in their head to capture Jinshi Hoshino.


	2. Chapter 1: Day 1

I wake up with an awful headache. I slowly and sleepily get out of bed, blinking a couple times and sitting up a little. This is… where am I? This is not my room.

Realizing this makes me wake up fully, looking around and processing my surroundings. I wasn’t asleep in my pajamas, I was wearing a usual daytime outfit… why? The room has dark blue walls, and the bedsheets and most of the furniture is black. I glance around the room and notice two doors down a small hallway in the corner before my attention is grabbed by a note on the nightstand next to me.

_Jinshi Hoshino, Ultimate Lucky Student_   
_Welcome to the Ichizo Hotel! Enjoy your stay._   
_There is a mandatory meeting for all guests in the lobby at noon._   
_Please make yourself comfortable, so long as you arrive there in time._

Noon… There's a digital clock on the nightstand next to the note. It’s 10:37am… I still have some time to figure things out before I have to find the lobby.

I stand up from the bed and turn around to see the rest of the room. Against the wall across from the bed is a sleek black dresser with nothing on top of it. I approach it and look inside to find several copies of the exact outfit I’m wearing as well as a few identical purple sets of pajamas and a couple copies of a plain white swimsuit.

Continuing to look around, I see a window just past the bed, on the opposite side of the room to the doors. It looks fairly normal, until I approach it… The display is digital. It shows an outdoors scene, and when I’m up close, I can tell the light isn’t coming from outside, but rather a screen that covers the entire window. I step away from it, confused, and decide to check out the doors on the other side of the room.

Opening one I find a small bathroom containing the usual bathroom necessities. I exit the bathroom and check the other door, which leads out into the hallway. I peek out of the doorway to see several other doors, none of which are open, and an elevator at the end. The hallway is empty… I close the door, staying inside for the moment, and make my way back to the bed to sit down and collect my thoughts.

I don’t recognize this place. I don’t know how long I’ve been here… I can’t think of where I was before this. Before…

My memories are vague. I’m eighteen… something bad happened when I was younger. Several years ago now. Something really bad… something that impacted the entire world… but I can’t remember what it was.

I was separated from my family and taken in by an organization that was trying to repair the world from this tragic event. I had a younger sister… Seiki. But I don’t remember what happened to her. I can’t seem to remember very many details about my life, or anything about how I got here… wherever this is.

I pick up the note on the nightstand and read it again. Ultimate Lucky Student… that’s right, that’s my title. Most people get ultimate talent titles because they’re really good at a particular thing, but I got mine because…

How did I get mine? ...I don’t remember. I don’t even remember having particularly good luck, so that doesn’t make sense either. All these gaps in memory are… not comforting.

Another thing I notice is the name of the hotel. Ichizo… I’ve definitely heard that somewhere, but I can’t quite place where. I assume I’ve heard of this hotel before and shrug it off.

After collecting my thoughts and having far too many unanswered questions for my liking, I decide to leave the room and see what else there is in this place.

I open the door to see a blonde boy in the hallway, exiting the room across from mine. He looks at me and smiles.

“Hello. Are you just as confused about this place as I am?” He steps towards me as he speaks.

“Uh… yeah…” I’m not sure what to say.

“My name is Rikizou Nishida. I’ll mention since it was on that note, so it’s probably relevant that I’m the Ultimate Violinist.” Rikizou extends a hand for me to shake.

“Um… Jinshi Hoshino. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.” I accept his hand and shake it.

“Nice to meet you, Jinshi.” He beams at me before releasing my hand and walking away without another word. I guess it’s good that the first person I found here is pretty friendly…

I take another look around the hallway. I look at the door he just came out of… it has a nameplate reading ‘Rikizou Nishida’. I turn around to see my own door, finding my nameplate reads ‘Jinshi Hoshino’. I guess each of the rooms are labelled so we can find them later.

After another moment of standing in the hallway, I walk towards the elevator at the end of the hall and step inside.

I take a look at the buttons. There seems to be a basement, ground level, second level, two guest floors, four entertainment floors, and then the roof. All the buttons appear to be dimly lit, except for the entertainment floors and the roof… I try pressing the button for the first entertainment floor. Nothing happens. I try the ground floor, and the button lights up brighter with an orange hue before the elevator doors close. I guess we don’t have access to the entertainment floors or roof, then…?

When the elevator reaches the ground floor, I step off and into the lobby.

“Incoming!!” The voice comes from a girl with long pale blue hair, accompanied by someone with fluffy purple hair rolling across the lobby together on a luggage cart. I step back as they speed past me and crash into the wall. The two of them fall over onto the floor, laughing together.

“Are you okay…?” I ask, slowly approaching them. The blue haired girl jumps up to a standing position and faces me.

“Are you an alien?” She stares into my eyes with an accusatory glare.

“W-what?” I don’t know how to respond to her question.

“Becca, back off. He’s probably human.” The purple haired person, now standing, pulls the girl back by her shoulder. “Hey, the name’s Akitsuna Miyabe. I’m the Ultimate Sculptor,” he introduces himself. The girl stares into my eyes for a moment while Akitsuna speaks to me, before shaking her head to herself. Akitsuna wraps an arm around her shoulder and says, “Becca here’s my good friend.”

“Yep! We’ve known each other for years,” the girl smiles, seeming to have given up on her line of questioning. “I’m Becca Bryant! Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist!” She pushes up her bright green glasses after her introduction, grinning at me. I guess her talent explains her initial question to me…

“Nice to meet you both… I’m Jinshi Hoshino, the Ultimate Lucky Student.”

“Nice to meetcha!” Becca gives me one last smile before turning back to the crashed luggage cart. She looks at Akitsuna. “Wanna go again?”

“Fuck yeah.” He helps her pick up the cart and off they go, rolling back across the lobby.

After watching them speed off, I walk further into the lobby to see what there is to find. It’s a fairly simple hotel lobby with a couple chairs around coffee tables and a front desk that seems to be for checking in, but there’s no staff in sight. I approach the front doors and attempt to open them. They’re locked… The note did say the meeting at noon was mandatory, so I guess they don’t want us wandering around outside before then.

There are large windows next to the door. I take a look outside… These windows aren’t real. Just like the one in my room, the entire window is filled with a large digital screen displaying some sort of video or livestream of the outdoors. Are all the windows like this?

I look around the lobby again and notice a security camera in the corner. I guess that makes sense for a hotel. There’s also large open glass doors on either side of the lobby with signs above them. One says ‘Dining Hall’, while the other says ‘Banquet Hall’. I decide to check out the dining hall first.

There’s a long glass table in the center of the room with six chairs on either side. The ceiling is rather high and there’s a large window facing the front of the hotel. I look closer at it to find that it’s also a screen display.

At the table, a short person sits alone. She looks younger than me, but not significantly so. She has short hair dyed in a black to ash blonde ombre with the upper half held up in two small buns. She has a black face mask that’s currently pulled down to her chin as she has a lollipop in her mouth. She’s staring blankly at the table in front of her.

“Hello?” I approach her and she looks at me.

“Hi,” she greets me, lollipop still in her mouth.

“Do you happen to know anything about what’s going on here?” I ask, taking a seat across the table from her. She shakes her head.

“Okay…” She doesn’t seem very talkative. “My name is Jinshi Hoshino. And you are?”

She bites the lollipop, taking the now candy-free stick out of her mouth and placing it on the table. She takes a moment to chew the candy and swallow before speaking.

“Reichiru Shiroma. Ultimate Graphic Designer.” After her introduction, she reaches up and lifts the mask on her chin to cover her nose and mouth.

“Nice to meet you. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.” I give her a polite smile. She stares at me for a moment.

“It’s almost time for the meeting,” Reichiru says, glancing at the wall to her left. Her voice is slightly muffled through her mask, but she speaks loud enough that I can hear her.

I look up at the wall she glanced at to see a clock. It’s 11:58am… how did time pass that quickly?

“Ah, yeah… I hope the meeting answers some of our questions.” I smile at her sheepishly, and she stands up without a word, leaving the dining hall. Is she just gonna leave her lollipop stick here…?

I get up and follow her out of the dining hall into the lobby. The people I met earlier are here, as well as a few people I haven’t seen yet… It looks like about twelve of us total.

Just as I’m about to approach someone and ask if they know anything about this place, we’re interrupted by a strange voice coming from the direction of the front desk.

“Welcome, ultimate students and recent graduates, to the Ichizo Hotel!” A half-black half-white teddy bear standing at about 2ft tall is perched on top of the desk, speaking and moving around as if it were alive.

“AAAGH!! What the _fuck_!?” A tall girl with short bangs and wavy white pigtails screams in shock.

“Calm down, calm down! I’m the manager of this hotel, no need to freak out!”

“A hotel managed by a teddy bear? I can’t say I’ve heard of that before,” Rikizou remarks.

“I’m no teddy bear! My name is Monokuma! I’m sure once you get to know me we’ll all get along quite well!” Did the teddy bear just… wink at us?

“Excuse me, Mr. Monokuma…” A polite looking girl with a long orange ponytail rolls her wheelchair to the front of the crowd to speak to the bear. “Could you tell us why we’re here? I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone else does either…” I’m amazed that she’s able to take this thing seriously.

“Why of course, Chiho!” She looks shocked that the bear knew her name. “You’ve all been selected to stay here free of charge! The Ichizo Hotel has several floors of entertainment and relaxation for you all to use at your disposal! Anything you could ever want, it’s here! Who would ever want to leave such a wonderful place like this?”

“Are you saying that…” Akitsuna speaks somewhat quietly near me and is cut off by the bear continuing his explanation.

“Now, I’ll introduce the Monomaids!” Five teddy bears appear next to Monokuma on the front desk, each about half as tall as him. They’re all coloured in the same style as Monokuma, half of them being white, but the other half is a different colour for each Monomaid - one is red, one is orange, one is yellow, one is green, and one is teal. They’re each dressed in a standard black and white maid outfit.

“There’s one for each floor! Since there’s only five floors currently accessible, these are the only five you’ll be seeing around! Red stays in the basement, Orange is in charge of this level, Yellow hangs out just above here, and Green and Teal will stay in the hallways of the two guest floors! If you ever need anything, room service, housekeeping, or just a me-shaped pal to spend some time with, find the Monomaid for the floor you’re on and ask!”

“Monomaids…” I can’t be the only one who finds this completely ridiculous.

“F-five floors currently… accessible… D-does that mean… w-we’ll have access to more later?” A shy boy with fluffy dark hair and glasses speaks up from the back.

“That’s right, Osami!” He seems a little scared that Monokuma knew his name as well. “Over time, you’ll unlock each of the four entertainment floors! The roof is reserved for the most fun part of this whole thing, though!” Before Monokuma can continue, he’s interrupted.

“Hold on a sec. You were saying something about ‘Who would ever want to leave’,” A short boy with dark red hair steps to the front of the crowd and confronts Monokuma. “Are you saying we can’t leave?”

“Now now, of course there’s a way to leave! In fact, I’m glad you asked! That leads me into the next thing I wanted to explain quite well!” Monokuma clears his throat before continuing. “You see, this isn’t any ordinary hotel stay! This is a killing game!”

“Killing game? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” The girl with white pigtails from earlier speaks up once again.

“The only way to check out of the Ichizo Hotel and exit this building is to kill a fellow guest!” The bear grins at us.

“K… kill!?” The red haired boy repeats in shock. Everyone’s muttering their disbelief and I’m struggling to process what this teddy bear is saying. How do we know he has any authority over us?

“That’s right! Allow me to explain with some rules! Actually, now would be a good time to hand out your Monopads!” The five Monomaids hop behind the front desk and walk around it, each holding two to three tablets. They make their way through the crowd and hand each of us a tablet.

The orange one walks up to me and holds out a tablet for me to take. I pick it up and turn it over in my hands. The back of it has an image of Monokuma’s face. I turn it back to view the front, and power it on. The startup screen greets me by name…

“Make sure to keep these tablets with you at all times! They have a map of the hotel, the list of rules, an application to keep notes, and for each murder case, you’ll get certain details about the crime in a Monokuma File! Now then, open up the rules and I’ll read ‘em out for ya!”

It sounds like he expects there to be more than one murder… What _is_ this place? Despite my confusion, I do as he says and open up the rules page on my Monopad.

“Rule Number 1: You may only reside within the hotel. Leaving the hotel is an unacceptable use of time.  
Rule Number 2: ‘Nighttime’ is from 10pm to 8am. Some areas are off-limits at night, so please exercise caution.  
Rule Number 3: Sleeping anywhere other than your rooms is prohibited.  
Rule Number 4: With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore the hotel at your discretion.  
Rule Number 5: Violence against the hotel manager Monokuma or any of the Monomaids is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.  
Rule Number 6: Anyone who kills a fellow guest and becomes ‘blackened’ will be able to check out and leave the hotel, unless they are discovered.  
Rule Number 7: Once a murder takes place, a trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving guests.  
Rule Number 8: If the guilty party is exposed during the trial, they alone will be executed.  
Rule Number 9: If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will be granted the ability to check out of the Ichizo Hotel, and all remaining guests will be executed.”

“E… executed?” Becca repeats in horror.

“So we don’t just have to kill someone, we have to go on trial and get away with it?” The red haired boy questions.

“Yup! That’s what the roof is for! It’s currently set up as a trial room with an amazing view! If you’d like to see it, get killing! Oh, and since this is a killing game and all, if no one kills for a few days I plan to give you a little more of an incentive to do so than just being able to check out of the hotel! Upupupu!” The bear laughs before hopping behind the front desk and disappearing.

“Wait-- come back! Why us!? Why did _we_ get chosen for this?” The orange haired girl, I think her name was Chiho, calls desperately after Monokuma to no avail.

Killing game… my mind is racing and I’m unable to process what we’ve just been told. I skim through the rules on my Monopad once again, just to be sure of what they say. This can’t be true… This is some kind of joke, right? A really weird, fucked up joke. We’ll be fine, I know it. At least, I can hope…

I try to clear my head, hearing the other people in the room talking to each other. Some have left the lobby already, and more are heading to different places… Whatever this place really is, I decide the best course of action for now is to meet the rest of the guests here. There were twelve people, I believe… I’ve met four so far. Excluding myself, there’s seven more people I should try to find.

Once I’m able to think somewhat clearly, I look around the lobby again. There’s only two people left in here, the boy with dark red hair who was talking to Monokuma, and a tall boy with brown hair and a leather jacket. I decide to approach them first.

“Hi. I don’t believe we’ve met,” the boy with brown hair addresses me.

“No, we haven’t… I’m Jinshi Hoshino. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student,” I introduce myself.

“Nice to meet you, Jinshi. I’m Toka Matsumoto. As for my talent, as strange as it sounds, I don’t remember it.”

“You don’t remember…?” I look at Toka, puzzled. “I mean, I don’t really remember ever getting the title ‘Ultimate Lucky Student’, but I remember that I have it… plus, it was on the note I found in my room this morning.”

“Really? My note didn’t say anything about my talent at all,” Toka scratches the back of his head.

“That’s strange,” the red haired boy speaks up. “Mine had my name, talent, all that.” He turns to face me. “By the way, I’m Kaisuke Terada. Ultimate Hairstylist.” He sticks out a hand for me to shake and I shake it.

“Nice to meet you both,” I say. “I’d like to try and meet everyone… Do either of you know how many guests there are here?”

“I counted twelve when we were all together,” Toka says.

“That’s what I thought. I’ll see you guys around.” With that, I leave the lobby through the door opposite to the dining hall I checked earlier, entering the banquet hall.

It’s a fairly large room with four round tables towards one end, each containing three chairs. Just enough for twelve people it seems. The ceiling is high and the room is lit by elegant chandeliers. Opposite to the tables, there’s a large squared off area on the floor, something like a dance floor.

Over near the tables, I notice the orange haired girl in the wheelchair from earlier looking around. I walk across the room and approach her. She notices me and turns around.

“Oh, hello. We haven’t met yet, have we? I’m Chiho Isayama, the Ultimate Baker!” She gives me a bright and friendly smile.

“My name is Jinshi Hoshino. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.” I give her a small smile back.

“You don’t have to look at me like that, I’m used to this,” she says, gesturing to her wheelchair. “I broke my back when I was five and it messed up my spinal cord, so I’ve been in a wheelchair for eleven years now.”

“Oh, sorry if I was staring…” Now that she mentions it, I realize that I was kind of glancing at the wheelchair. I feel rude.

“No, don’t worry about it! It’s hard not to stare. You don’t see someone in a wheelchair every day. Unless you’re me or someone I see every day!” She giggles a little.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Chiho. I’d like to introduce myself to everyone, so I’ll see you around,” I say, ending the conversation.

“Nice to meet you too, Jinshi! Seeya later!” She turns herself around in her chair and pushes herself further into the room to look around more.

After leaving the banquet hall, I cross through the lobby again and notice a small hallway next to the front desk with a sign above it that reads ‘Pool’. I decide to go look there.

I enter a door at the end of the hallway and find myself in a unisex changing room. There’s a couple of lockers and benches, and a few changing stalls for privacy at one side. There’s no one in here. Curious, I walk through the changing room and open the door at the other end to see the pool.

It’s a fairly normal indoor pool, nothing too huge and fancy but it doesn’t look cheap either. There’s a hot tub in the corner and a seating area near the door. The girl with white hair in pigtails from before is crouching next to the pool, dipping her hand in the water. I slowly approach her.

“Not gonna push me in the pool, are ya?” The girl speaks without moving. I stop where I am.

“N-no, that’s not--” I stop talking when she stands up and turns around.

“Hey. I saw you before in the lobby. I’m Olivia Kuroda! My specialty is making people look like they’re severely injured! Also known as the Ultimate Special Effects Makeup Artist.” She grins at me, holding out a hand for me to shake.

“I’m Jinshi Hoshino. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.” I shake her hand before realizing it was the one she had dipped in the pool and it’s all wet.

“Nice to meetcha, Jinshi! This place is fuckin’ weird, isn’t it?” She releases my now also wet hand.

“Uh… yeah,” I agree as I attempt to dry my hand on my clothes.

“Dumb fuckin’ bear thinks we’re gonna kill each other to check out but gives us a nice hotel to stay in. Only thing I miss so far is my makeup supplies, but I can live without it.” She walks past me and looks around the pool area. I turn to watch her.

“Yeah… I don’t even know how much power he has over us. He’s just the first thing that seemed to tell us anything about this place.” I voice my thoughts from earlier while we’re on the subject.

“You’re right! Who says we have to follow what he says? Death threats don’t mean shit until someone’s actually died to prove it can happen. Guess it’s a 50/50 at this point.” She’s turned back to face me and holds her hands behind her back.

I guess she’s right… I don’t fully believe this bear, but I’d say it’s better to go with what he says for now - not the killing part, of course - until we know we’re safe.

“I’m gonna look around a bit more. Seeya!” With that, Olivia heads for the door to the changing rooms.

“Seeya…” I take another moment to observe the pool area more closely. I notice large windows also covered by screens displaying a similar outdoor scene to the others. Afterwards, I leave the pool area myself.

Having seen almost the entire ground level, I get back on the elevator and decide to take a look at the second level. When I step off the elevator, I’m met with a seating area in a similar style to the chairs and coffee tables in the lobby, but there’s more of them alongside some couches as well.

The boy with fluffy black hair who spoke to Monokuma briefly in the lobby is sitting alone, staring at one of the window screens. I walk towards him and take a seat in a chair adjacent to him. He doesn’t seem to notice.

“Um… excuse me?” I attempt to get his attention.

“O-oh,” he turns to face me, eyes wide. The poor boy looks terrified.

“Hey… my name is Jinshi Hoshino. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student,” I introduce myself calmly. “Who are you?”

“M-my name… O-Osami, Shimizu… and my talent… is the Ultimate S-Spirit Medium…” He’s shaking as he speaks.

“Nice to meet you… this place is pretty freaky, isn’t it?” I do my best to relate to his fear, hoping it’ll make him feel better.

“Y-yeah… I can hear…” He pauses and gulps. “Them.”

“Them?” I ask, having no clue what he’s talking about.

“People… have d-died here… there’s t-two of them…” He doesn’t seem like the type to joke about something like that. I’m not sure I fully believe in spirits, but whatever he’s experiencing sounds terrifying…

“It’ll be okay,” I say, with no idea of how to comfort him.

Osami shakily nods in response before returning to looking out the window screen. He’s shaking a little less… maybe it helps distract him. I stand up and move on without interrupting his staring anymore.

At one end of the seating area on this level, I notice an area sectioned off into something that appears to be a coffee shop. I make my way through the seating area and approach it to check it out.

Sure enough, the area has a sign hanging from the ceiling at the entrance that reads ‘Coffee Shop’. It has a warm brown colour scheme, counters lining the walls with various supplies to make different coffee drinks. There’s a counter island with stools to sit at, as well as a couple tables with chairs a little further out. The yellow Monomaid is currently perched on the counter, looking ready to take an order. Looking at it more closely, I notice the Monomaid is wearing a nametag that says ‘Yellow’.

At one of the tables, there are two girls sitting and drinking coffee - one dressed in a goth style with long black hair held in low pigtails, and one with deep pink hair held in a high ponytail. I approach the table.

“Excuse me, I don’t believe I’ve met either of you yet,” I say.

“Oh… hi,” the pink haired girl says, smiling through an uncomfortable and distracted expression on her face. The girl with black hair stares at me with wide heterochromic eyes.

“My name is Jinshi Hoshino. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student,” I introduce myself as I sit down.

“Not so lucky if we’re in a killing game, huh?” The black haired girl speaks.

“I guess not… To be honest, I don’t even know why I have this title. I don’t remember ever having notably good luck,” I explain.

“Maybe whoever’s behind this wrote that on your note to emphasize how unlucky you are to be here,” She suggests. “Oh. I’m Hatsumi Asano. Wanna guess my talent?”

“Uh…” I look at her. She’s dressed in a goth outfit, but that doesn’t tell me much… There’s a lot of talents that could fit that aesthetic. “I’ve got no idea.”

“Ultimate ESports Competitor.” She gives me a small smile.

“Oh.” I guess she asked because she knew I wouldn’t be able to guess based on her appearance. I turn to face the pink haired girl. “What about you?”

“Um, my name is Takeyo Kaba. I’m the Ultimate Actress,” she introduces herself.

“Oh, I think I’ve seen a movie you were in once,” I comment. “You’re really good at acting.”

“Yeah, guess that’s why I’m an ultimate…” Takeyo uncomfortably giggles and then sighs. I wonder what’s up with her…

“I wonder if there’s an arcade or something on one of the entertainment floors… and when they’ll be unlocked…” Hatsumi says, seeming to mostly be talking to herself.

“I’d… like to look around this place a little more. I’ll see you two around,” I say as I stand up. It feels strange leaving so quickly, but I have no idea what else to say to them.

“Seeya,” Hatsumi says. Takeyo stays silent and takes a sip of her drink as I leave.

I take the elevator back to the ground level, looking at the map of the hotel on my Monopad. Looks like the second level also has a nurses office, and the only place on the ground level I haven’t seen is the kitchen. There’s also a basement I haven’t even been to yet. When I select the entertainment floors, the map is greyed out and I can’t see what’s there. I wonder when those will be accessible…

When I step off the elevator into the lobby, I hear voices coming from the banquet hall. I walk inside to see most of the other guests sitting and eating while the orange Monomaid waits on them. I walk further inside to see what’s going on.

“Hey, Jinshi!” I hear someone call my name and turn to see the blonde boy - Rikizou, I think was his name - that I met in the hallway shortly after leaving my room this morning. He’s sitting with the girl in the wheelchair… Chiho.

I approach their table and sit down with them, not having any idea of where else to sit.

“The Monomaid’s bringing us all food. It doesn’t talk, but it takes any orders we have!” Chiho explains. As she’s speaking, the orange Monomaid hops up onto the table and hands me a menu.

I take a look at the menu. There’s all sorts of fancy looking dishes… no price in sight. I guess all the service here really is free… Besides the suggestion of murder and lack of access to the outdoors, this place is pretty nice.

When the Monomaid comes back, I order a fairly simple looking chicken dish. It doesn’t take long at all for the Monomaid to bring me my food, and I begin to eat.

“The food here is delicious,” Rikizou comments between bites of a dish that looks notably different from mine.

“It is,” I agree once I’ve tasted my food. I could get used to this.

The three of us eat, making light conversation between bites. I can hear talking and laughing from the other tables, too. No one seems all that worried… I guess it’s safe to assume that no one’s seriously considering Monokuma’s suggestion. Chances are, no one here has killed before, so why would we now? I’ve just barely met these people, but none of them seem like they would commit murder just to get out of here…

My mind wanders to what Monokuma mentioned about an added incentive after a few days. Is he saying he’ll offer some kind of reward besides just leaving…? Even with something like that, we could probably ignore it and just move on. If the Monomaids bring us food and anything else we might need, I think the twelve of us can manage in this place just fine until someone comes and finds us.

Once I’m finished my meal, the Monomaid collects my dirty plate and rushes off. The service is really nice…

“Welp, I’m gonna hit the hay,” Rikizou says as he stands up and walks around the table. “I’ll see you two tomorrow.” He pats Chiho and I on our shoulders before turning around and leaving the banquet hall.

“I’m getting pretty tired too,” Chiho says. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Jinshi.” She smiles kindly at me before backing her chair away from the table and rolling herself out of the room.

It seems everyone else is leaving the banquet hall one by one. I decide to do the same and take the elevator back to the second guest floor where my room is located.

I enter my room and look around once again. I need a shower… I walk into the bathroom and hop in the shower. As I’m showering, I think about the events of today and make a plan for tomorrow. I’ll look around in all the places I didn’t see today, and I’ll try to get more answers about what this place is and why we’re here. After getting out of the shower, I dry myself off and walk into the main area of my room in a towel.

I change into a set of pajamas found in the dresser. I sit down on the bed and dry my hair a little more, when I notice the display in the window change to show Monokuma sitting in a fancy desk chair.

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

After the bear finishes speaking, the display switches to a nighttime version of the daytime scene that was shown prior to the announcement. The fast change just adds to the strange feeling I have about this place… How are we supposed to know that it’s really nighttime if the night we’re seeing is fake?

I shrug it off for now and climb into bed. As weird as this place is, the bed sure is comfy… it doesn’t take me long to fall asleep.


	3. Chapter 1: Day 2

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

The voice played over the speakers wakes me up immediately. I open my eyes just a little to see Monokuma displayed on the screen in the window, before it switches back to the daytime scene from yesterday. I’m not used to getting up this early… I drift back off to sleep for a little while.

When I do get up, I check the time to see it’s a little after nine. I get dressed and leave my room. I guess there’s nothing to do but get used to living here, for now… I take the elevator down to the ground level and enter the dining hall.

The tall boy with brown hair is sitting alone. Toka, I think his name was? He’s eating cereal and looking at something on his Monopad. He notices me walk in.

“Morning,” he greets me between bites.

“Good morning,” I reply as I pass through into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, I see… Reichiru? I’m still getting used to everyone’s names. She’s on her tiptoes trying to reach something on a high shelf. Before I can approach her and offer to help, she snaps her fingers twice and the orange Monomaid enters the kitchen. It hops up onto the counter and climbs the shelf, bringing down a box of lollipops before leaving. Reichiru takes a lollipop out of the box and unwraps it before shoving it in her mouth. She then turns and finally notices me.

“Good morning,” I greet her.

She waves to me before walking past and leaving the kitchen on her own. She’s certainly gotten used to the Monomaids, it seems…

Now alone, I take a moment to look around the kitchen since it’s my first time in here. It’s a pretty large kitchen stocked with all sorts of food. Looks to be mainly breakfasts, snacks, and simple meals… I wonder if that means the dinner in the banquet hall is a daily thing.

After looking around, I prepare myself a bowl of cereal and bring it out to the dining hall where I sit near Toka to eat.

“Jinshi, right?” Toka asks once I sit down.

“Yeah,” I confirm before taking a bite of cereal.

“You got any plans for today?” He leans on the table as he asks.

“I was mostly planning to see all the places I didn’t see yesterday. I’d like to find out more about why we’re here, but I don’t know where to find those answers,” I respond.

“I’m pretty much the same. I’m gonna check out the basement after breakfast if you wanna join.” Toka takes another bite of his cereal after his suggestion.

“Sure,” I agree, continuing to eat my own cereal as well.

The rest of the meal is spent in silence as Toka pokes around on the map on his Monopad before bringing his bowl back to the kitchen. I follow him shortly after when I’m finished mine as well, and we head to the lobby to take the elevator down.

“Get out of my way, you stupid bear!” The first thing to catch my attention in the basement is Olivia’s yelling. Toka and I step off the elevator to see what’s going on.

The red Monomaid is standing in front of a door with the words ‘Do Not Open’ on it. Olivia tries to step to either side and reach for the door handle above the Monomaid, but it zips around and jumps to stop her from reaching the door.

“Um, Olivia-” I attempt to step in and stop her.

“Fuckin bear,” She mutters as she grabs the Monomaid and lifts it up. It starts beeping.

“Wh… what the fuck?!” She throws the Monomaid back to the floor against the door.

“Get back!” Toka steps in front of her and I, pulling the both of us away from the Monomaid as its beeping becomes increasingly rapid. It’s followed by a small explosion that doesn’t damage the door, floor, or anything around it, but I could tell it would’ve caused significant damage to someone standing next to it or touching it.

“Damn… You saved my life!” Olivia gives a huge grin, facing Toka.

“Well we don’t know much about this place, if a door says ‘Do Not Open’ then you probably shouldn’t try to open it,” Toka says in a very stating-the-obvious kind of tone.

“Guess you’re right. That’s why my talent is makeup and not following rules. You don’t remember your talent, right? I bet that’s what it is! Ultimate Rule Follower!” Olivia laughs a little at her own joke.

“Doubt it.” Toka sighs and shakes his head, smiling a little.

“Welp, guess I’ll do a little more rule following if I don’t wanna get killed. I’ll see ya later, got some rules to follow!” With that, Olivia skips onto the elevator and leaves.

After watching that conversation, I turn back to look at the door she was trying to open. Just as I look, the door opens and a replacement red Monomaid steps out holding a broom. The door closes behind it and it starts to sweep up the remains of the recently exploded Monomaid.

With the commotion, I didn’t have a chance to properly look around the basement since we got here, so I step around a little and observe my surroundings. It has a dark grey colour scheme and isn’t nearly as fancy as the upper floors. Besides the unknown room behind the ‘Do Not Open’ door, there’s two doors down a hallway. One is labelled ‘Housekeeping’ and the other is ‘Laundry’. I open the first door and Toka follows me inside.

The housekeeping room has shelves full of bedsheets and toiletries. On one side of the room, there are several housekeeping carts small enough for the Monomaids to easily push around. I turn to face Toka and he seems distracted, looking at his Monopad again.

“Hey, Jinshi… the room behind that door out there isn’t on the map,” he says, holding out his Monopad for me to look at.

“Really?” I walk up and take a look, and he’s right. There’s just a huge chunk missing out of the basement floor. The map displays a solid wall where the door should be.

“Strange…” I glance around the housekeeping room one more time. “It doesn’t seem like there are any answers in here.” Toka takes a quick look around before agreeing and we leave.

Next, we look in the laundry room. There are several washing machines and dryers along the walls, and there’s a stack of laundry baskets. It looks like most of the stuff in here is designed to be used by both humans and the Monomaids.

I think about suggesting leaving when I look at Toka and something occurs to me. I approach him.

“Hey… about your talent, if the note from yesterday didn’t even say it, how do you know you have a talent at all?”

Toka thinks for a moment before responding. “I remember receiving a talent title. I definitely remember being referred to as an Ultimate before. But I just can’t remember what it was that I excelled in,” he explains. “I know, makes me sound kinda suspicious, doesn’t it? I kinda feel like there’s a reason I don’t remember it, and why it wasn’t on that note.”

“Kinda…” I’d like to trust Toka. He doesn’t seem like a bad person, but it’s definitely weird that he doesn’t remember his talent. There’s also the possibility that he’s lying about his lost memory… But I don’t think he is. He seems trustworthy. Is that naïve?

“Nothing too interesting in here, either,” Toka comments about the room. He heads for the door and I take one last glance around before following him out.

We get on the elevator and I look at the map on my Monopad. I select the ground floor.

“I haven’t seen the luggage room yet,” I mention.

“Ah, I saw it yesterday. There’s actually something I wanted to check out in my room, so I’ll see you around.” Toka selects the second guest floor and the elevator starts moving up.

“Seeya,” I say, stepping off on the ground level.

From the map, I find the entrance to the luggage room fairly easily. Just outside the door, there’s a line of luggage carts like the one that Becca and Akitsuna were playing around with yesterday. I walk past them and enter the room.

“Oh, hey Jinshi!” Rikizou turns around and greets me when he hears me enter.

“Hi, Rikizou,” I respond as I start to look around. It’s a fairly small room with storage space for luggage, but all the shelves are currently empty.

“There’s not much to see here, huh?” Rikizou gestures at the empty shelves.

“Yeah, not really.”

“I’ve just been looking everywhere I haven’t seen yet. The supposed ‘Entertainment Floors’ aren’t open yet, so there’s not much to do.” He gives a light giggle.

“I wonder what kind of stuff is even on the entertainment floors. Monokuma said they’ll be unlocked over time, but didn’t say anything about how much time,” I say.

“Maybe they’ll be accessible once murders start happening.” His smile doesn’t falter as he says that, and he quickly moves on. “Hey, I’d like to take a look at the second level. There are a few places there I haven’t seen yet. Would you like to come with me?”

“Oh, sure,” I say, recalling that I haven’t seen the nurse’s office yet. How can he say something like that so casually…

We leave the luggage room and take the elevator up to the second level. I head towards the nurse’s office and Rikizou follows me.

It’s a fairly simple nurse’s office. There’s first aid kits and various types of bandages, some simple medicine, and a singular bed with white sheets. I notice what looks like prescription medicine with some of the others’ names on the labels. Not wanting to pry into their medical business, I don’t read what they are.

“‘Rule Number 3: Sleeping anywhere other than your rooms is prohibited.’” Rikizou is reading off his Monopad when I turn to look at him. “Interesting that there’s a bed here despite that rule, don’t you think?”

“Yeah…” I walk over to where he’s standing next to the bed.

“Monomaid?” Rikizou calls out towards the entrance to the nurse’s office. Shortly after, the yellow Monomaid rushes into the room.

“Can we sleep in this bed, or is that still considered a violation of Rule Number 3?” He asks the small bear and stands there waiting for a response. The bear remains silent.

“Does it not know…?” I wonder aloud after the bear hasn’t responded for a moment.

Suddenly, Monokuma appears in the room. “Monomaids can’t talk, silly!”

“Oh, my apologies!” Rikizou scratches the back of his head and smiles at Monokuma. “I’ll ask you then. Would sleeping in this bed be considered a violation of Rule Number 3, since it’s not in one of our rooms? If so, why is it here?”

“That’s a good question!” Monokuma pauses as if he’s thinking about it. “You can sleep in this bed, but only if you’re sick or injured! You need a reason to have to stay in the nurse’s office rather than your room! Is that all?”

Rikizou looks at me as if to ask if I have anything to say to Monokuma. I think for a second before speaking.

“Can you tell us when we can go to the entertainment floors? Why are they off-limits right now?”

“I already told you, they’ll be unlocked over time! Why would I spoil when you get them when the suspense is so delightful? You get ‘em when you get ‘em, that’s it!” This time, Monokuma doesn’t pause to see if we have any more questions, and he leaves the nurse’s office.

Shortly after he leaves, Rikizou and I both receive a notification on our Monopads.

_Rule Update!_  
_Rule #3: Sleeping anywhere other than your rooms is prohibited, unless you are sick or injured and feel the need to rest in the Nurse’s Office._

“A rule update because of a question I asked! I feel special,” Rikizou smiles at me. Is a rule update in a place like this really something to be proud of…? I guess this one is helpful, considering it lets us do more things rather than less.

“Let’s see what else there is,” Rikizou suggests, heading for the door. “I remember the map had a coffee shop on this floor, I’d like to go there.”

“I’ve already seen it,” I note, following him out.

“Oh. I’ll look around alone, then, unless you’d like to see it again?”

“I think I’ll stay behind. See you later,” I give him a wave as we part ways.

After he leaves, I glance around the seating area and notice Becca and Akitsuna sitting together. Akitsuna sees me and waves me over, so I walk over to join them.

“Hey, Jinshi. How ya doin?” Akitsuna asks as I sit down.

“I’m alright, I guess. I think I’ve seen everywhere we can go at this point, but still no answers on why exactly we’re here,” I reply.

“Same, we just finished up looking everywhere on the map,” he says.

“I think I’ve figured it out!” Becca enthusiastically announces to the two of us.

“What’s up?” Akitsuna turns his attention to her.

“Y’know the aliens in the government, right? I’m pretty sure they’ve been working for years to get rid of all the humans, and this ‘killing game’ is their way of making entertainment out of it! They have enough aliens on earth now replacing the humans that they’ve captured a group of remaining humans and told us to kill each other. They’re probably watching us through those cameras!” She points to the surveillance cameras on either side of the seating area as she explains.

“Monokuma’s a robot, right? He’s probably made with alien technology, and they’re controlling him to tell us what to do! I swear, I did everything I could to get them off my trail, to hide that I was human, but I guess they found me after all. I think that means we can trust that everyone here is human… we should still keep an eye on the others, though, in case they have a spy or two within our group.”

I stare at her blankly as she explains her theory. It takes me a minute to process what she’s saying. “Hold on- Aliens in the government?” I ask, bewildered.

“Right!” She launches into another explanation. “You probably don’t know about it, I had to explain it to Aki and Rei when I first met them! I’ve known it for years, the government is run by aliens and they’re trying to replace humanity and take over Earth. I know at least the United States government and the Japanese government for sure, I’m not as sure about other countries but it’s definitely likely that the whole world is slowly being taken over by aliens. I saw it in my own family, it was horrible… They’re all gone now, though…”

“All gone?” I have several questions, but that’s the first one that comes out.

“They’re dead,” she states flatly.

“Oh… I’m sorry.” I feel bad for bringing attention to it.

“No, it’s alright. It’s the aliens’ fault, really. I mean, they took them over first, and then…” She trails off and bites her lip. “I guess it was one tragedy after another, until I ended up in an orphanage in Japan, where I met Aki and Rei!”

“Oh, you met in an orphanage?” That means Akitsuna’s parents are also…

“Yup,” Akitsuna confirms. “I don’t miss my parents at all, they were shitty people. Guess it’s not great to be happy when someone dies, but good fuckin’ riddance to them.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. My parents are pretty average, I guess… though I can’t remember any recent interactions with them, I’d definitely be sad if they died.

“Who’s this Rei you’ve been mentioning?” I ask, deciding to slightly change the topic for now.

“He’s our friend! Him and Aki were both in the orphanage by the time I got there, and we all got close since we were the older kids that no one really wanted to adopt,” Becca explains.

“He was in there since he was nine, I met him there when we were both fourteen, and Becca joined us a year later,” Akitsuna adds. “We’re all seventeen, so the orphanage won’t keep us for much longer. We’ve been saving up to get an apartment together next year.”

Can they still do that if they’re stuck in this hotel…? I guess a lot of people might’ve had upcoming plans or connections with people outside of this group. Would that much be enough to get someone to kill…?

“I hope Rei’s doing okay.” Becca seems concerned.

“We’ll see him again. We gotta,” Akitsuna says, seeming to try to convince himself of that. “Whatever this place is, we’ll bust outta here and find him.”

“Yeah!” Becca agrees, determined by Akitsuna’s words.

I admire their optimism, but I can’t help but think it’ll be a lot harder to get out of here than they’d like. I can’t stop thinking about how Monokuma said the only way to leave the hotel is to kill someone…

“I’m hungry!” Becca interrupts my thoughts. I check the time on a clock that’s conveniently on a wall nearby to find it’s right around dinner time. I guess the afternoon went by pretty fast.

“Same,” Akitsuna says.

“Let’s go see if there’s dinner in the banquet hall like yesterday,” I suggest. 

“Good idea!” Becca exclaims as she stands up. The three of us leave the seating area and take the elevator down.

When we get to the banquet hall, there’s a few other people sitting and eating inside. The three of us find an empty table and sit together, each telling the Monomaid our orders and continuing our conversation as we eat.

“You said you’re the Ultimate Lucky Student, right?” Akitsuna asks me. “How’d you get that title?”

“Honestly, I don’t remember… I just remember having the title. I’ve never even had particularly good luck,” I explain.

“Maybe it shows up in little ways that you don’t even notice,” he suggests. “Like, little annoying things that would normally happen often are less frequent or just less bad for you.”

“Maybe… I don’t know why I’d get a title for it if that’s the case, though.” I continue to eat, wondering more about my talent.

“What about you two? You’re the Ultimate Sculptor and the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist, right?” I turn the conversation around to the other two.

“Yup!” Becca confirms her talent. “I feel like calling my theories ‘conspiracies’ kinda puts down my credibility, but I just _know_ I’m right, y’know? I just wish people would believe me more often.”

I give a sympathetic nod, deciding that now wasn’t a good time to mention that I’m not at all convinced that there are aliens in the government.

“I’ve talked enough about my talent, Aki, how about you brag now? Your sculptures are so cool!” Becca nudges Akitsuna on the shoulder, prompting him to talk about his talent.

“I guess they’re pretty cool,” he admits. “I’ve sculpted all sortsa stuff. Used a lotta different materials, too. My favourites are the flowers I’ve made with stone and metal, I like how they look all soft and delicate but could knock a person out if you chuck it at them.”

“That sounds amazing,” I compliment. “The sculptures, not the part about knocking someone out.” Just imagining all the details in a flower, for an Ultimate Sculptor, I imagine they’d look insanely realistic.

“I’d show you ‘em but I don’t have any with me,” he says. “They gave us a bit of talent-related stuff in our rooms but all I got in mine was a bit of cheap clay. Guess they ran out of budget after setting up the rest of this hotel.” He gestures around, presumably to the general fanciness of the room.

“I didn’t get anything talent related in my room… I guess I’m not sure what items would even be related to my talent,” I admit.

“I just got my notebook where I wrote all my notes about how to recognize an alien, how to avoid getting replaced by one, and notes about other theories I have. If the aliens running this thing read that, I might be in big trouble…” Becca holds her head in her hands.

“You’ll be fine,” Akitsuna reassures her with a pat on her back. I think we’re already in big trouble if we’re trapped in a hotel where a teddy bear is telling us to kill each other…

Once we’re all finished eating, we part ways and I head back to my room. I hop in the shower again and take a moment to think.

I’ve seen everything here that I can at the moment. I guess tomorrow it might be a good idea to spend more time talking to the others. I’m also wondering how much longer we have before the bear introduces whatever ‘incentive’ he was referring to. I hope it’s nothing that threatens our lives any more than the initial suggestion of murder…

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

The announcement plays as I’m getting out of the shower. I take a moment to dry off before putting on a fresh pair of pajamas and going to bed.


	4. Chapter 1: Day 3

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I don’t watch the video in the window, but I notice the level of light change in my room. With the main lights still off, it’s dark enough that I manage to drift back off to sleep for a while.

About an hour later, I hear sounds over the speakers. It’s not an announcement. It’s hard to tell what it is… there’s some music in the background, and what sounds like a teenage girl crying out in pain. I roll over in my bed and open my eyes to see what’s on the screen.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _hanging_

A girl with a long blue braid is sitting in a chair, playing a chess match against Monokuma. Thin ropes are holding her against the chair and there are tiny blades poking out of the chess pieces, making them difficult for her to pick up. She’s struggling to play but seems determined to win.

Monokuma makes a move that wins the game. He stands up on his chair and does a victory dance while the girl cries out in frustration and pain. A thicker rope tied into a noose swings down from above, around the girl’s neck, and pulls her up out of the chair. She struggles for a moment before going limp and the video cuts out, back to the daytime scene.

Is she… dead? Who was that?

Confused and disturbed by the video, I quickly get dressed and leave my room. There’s no one in the hallway, so I take the elevator down to the lobby.

When the elevator doors open, I see Chiho in the middle of the lobby facing the front windows. It looks like she’s crying while Olivia is leaning down trying to comfort her, and Osami is sitting in a chair looking terrified.

“Sachiko…” I hear Chiho say amongst her sobs as I approach them.

“What’s… going on?” I ask more to Olivia than Chiho, not wanting to upset her any more.

“Looks like that girl in the video was one of Chiho’s friends or somethin’,” Olivia explains.

“She-” Chiho tries to speak but her words break off into sobs. Olivia rubs her shoulder, trying to comfort her.

“Hey, does anyone know what the hell that video was?” Kaisuke’s voice catches my attention as he enters the lobby from the dining hall.

“My guess is that fuckin’ bear’s ‘incentive’ or whatever to get us to kill,” Olivia replies.

“Why would showing us brutal scenes like that make us kill someone?” Kaisuke sighs, clearly frustrated. “What, does he think we’ll get ideas from seeing people murdered like that?”

“I…” Chiho starts to speak. “Her family bought bread from my bakery… and she would come in sometimes… she was a little rude, but I could tell she liked seeing me…” Everyone falls silent as she explains. “Is she… she’s dead, isn’t she…” She starts to cry again.

“Oh, so you knew her?” Rikizou appears from somewhere and joins the conversation. “Then the idea is probably that if no one kills, another person that someone knows will be killed and we’ll be shown the video footage!”

“How can you say that so calmly?” Kaisuke questions him, clearly distressed.

“This is just the situation we’ve been put in, isn’t it? One of my best qualities is my adaptability to new situations.” Rikizou continues to smile as he speaks.

“Fuck off, you’re annoying.” Olivia brushes him off and turns back to check on Chiho.

“Before I do, I’d like to confirm my suspicion. Monokuma?” Rikizou calls for the bear away from the other people in the lobby.

“You figured it out so quickly!” Monokuma exclaims after appearing from behind the front desk. “Rikizou is correct! Actually, let me make this as an announcement rather than just telling you six!” Just as quickly, he disappears again.

Shortly after, the screen display changes to show Monokuma. _“Ahem, attention everyone… Since I’ve been questioned about the video that played a few minutes ago, I’ve decided to tell you all what’s going on! The girl in that video was known by one of the guests here! In exactly one hour from the time that video played, in this case, at 10am, another video will be shown of someone known by a guest getting killed! If someone kills within the hour between videos, I’ll stop showin’ ‘em to ya! In the meantime, feel free to strike inspiration in your murder methods from these videos! This is your first motive. So get killing! Upupupu!”_ The screen switches back to its normal daytime display.

Rikizou smiles at Olivia and leaves the lobby without another word. She scowls as she watches him go before continuing to comfort Chiho.

The conversation dies down and people start to leave the lobby. Despite how awful the video was, I find myself hungry, so I head into the kitchen for some breakfast.

There’s no one else here so I fry up just enough eggs for myself and sit alone to eat. I wonder if anyone’s considering killing for this motive… Just as I finish up my meal and worry about when the next video might play, it happens.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _being crushed to death_

This one has a girl with wavy hair in a black to magenta ombre. She’s sitting on what looks like a huge bookshelf, other shelves behind her toppling onto one another like dominoes. She hurries to climb off the shelves but a giant book falls and lands on her, crushing her, and then the video ends.

I stare at the screen for a moment before shaking my head. These videos are horrible…

I bring my plate back to the kitchen before heading out to the lobby where I find Kaisuke staring at the front window screen in anger. Osami is still sitting in the same spot, staring at the floor and looking terrified. Chiho has moved her wheelchair to be next to him and Olivia is sitting across from them, looking frustratedly at the screen and glancing at Kaisuke.

I decide not to bother them for now and take the elevator to the second level. I don’t know what these videos are all about, but I need to do something to distract myself from them.

In the large seating area, I see Reichiru sitting alone. Akitsuna and Becca are sitting together talking to Toka and Hatsumi in a group of chairs close to the coffee shop. I walk past them and enter the coffee shop to see Takeyo sitting alone, fiddling with her Monopad and sipping a coffee.

“Hot chocolate, please,” I say to the yellow Monomaid standing on the counter. It hops around and gets to work making my drink before handing it to me. I take a seat at a different table from Takeyo, sipping my drink and waiting for time to go by.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _blunt force trauma to the head_

It’s 11am when the next video plays. This one has an emo-looking red haired boy picking flowers in what seems to be an indoor garden. Someone holding a shovel walks up behind him, some editing in the video obscuring who it is. They swing the shovel at his head, hitting him hard enough to kill, and he falls to the ground. The person walks away and the video ends.

“Holy shit,” Takeyo speaks barely above a whisper and I turn to face her. She glances at me.

“Um- it’s just kinda weird. I used to know him,” she looks down at her table and takes a sip of her coffee, before her eyes widen as she seems to realize something. “The motive… but why him, of all people…”

“Who was he?” I question, scooting my chair a little closer to talk to her easier.

“Um, he was… an ex of mine. His name’s Matt. It was just a little summer fling, but he was my first real boyfriend. We had to break it off when my dad got a promotion at his job and my family moved across Japan,” she explains. “Plus, we moved to a city with a lot more acting opportunities for me, so I wasn’t gonna try to stop my parents from moving. I just can’t believe he’s…” She trails off as she gazes at the screen.

I nod in acknowledgement and the conversation dies out. She seems stressed about something, and I figure it’s due to the fact that she just saw the death of someone she was close with. That must be hard…

As I continue to sip my hot chocolate, I wonder who would be killed if they targeted someone close to me. There’s my sister, but we never had a super close relationship… I’d definitely be upset if she died, though. I wonder how she’s doing… Besides her, I can’t remember if I had any friends. The past five years or so are kind of a blur. Maybe they’d find someone I was close with at that organization that took me in.

My thoughts are interrupted when Takeyo gets up and leaves on her own. I realize I've finished my drink and I bring the cup back to the counter where the Monomaid takes it from me. I leave the coffee shop and see who’s in the seating area at this point.

I notice Akitsuna and Reichiru have left, and Rikizou is now sitting on his own a few seats away from the remaining group. I decide to sit with Becca, Toka, and Hatsumi.

“Jinshi! Hi!” Becca greets me as I sit down.

“Hey,” I respond.

“Hey Jinshi. We’re just talking about the motive.” Toka looks like he’s trying to hide how worried he is. Maybe he has someone he’s worried about being targeted…

“I don’t want them to kill Shōhei,” Hatsumi states, looking uncomfortable. “Or any of my friends. I don’t think I could kill someone to protect them, but… dammit, I don’t know.” She crosses her arms and looks at the floor.

I want to say something reassuring, but I’m not sure of anything. We don’t know who else they’ll kill or how long this has to go on for. If it’s really until someone in the hotel kills…

“It’s a classic case of ‘How many innocent people can we kill before someone kills to protect them?’ It’s disgusting,” Toka says.

I nervously glance at the clock to see that it’s almost time for the next video. The whole group stays relatively quiet as we wait for the next video to play.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _mentions of poison, coughing up blood_

This one has a short person with short fluffy black hair, a white eyepatch, and a bright pink hoodie. They’re running excitedly through a dining hall and into what looks like a bar area, where a person stands holding a plate with a single cupcake on it. Just like the last video, the identity of the other person is obscured with editing. The person seems excited and takes the cupcake off the plate, thanks the other person, and begins to eat it. Shortly after, they collapse on the floor and start coughing up blood. Once they lie motionless, the video ends.

“They were poisoned…” Toka observes.

Hatsumi sighs and looks at the ground.

Becca stares at the window as it displays the daytime scene once again. “I wonder who knew that person…”

I want to speak. I want to do something. I want to distract myself and the others, but I know in another hour another video will play. There’s nothing we can do to stop it.

The hour passes in an uncomfortable silence. The four of us remain where we are and look back up at the window when the display changes.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _bomb/explosion_

This video is significantly poorer quality than the previous ones. It also seems to be filmed at a strange angle… From what I can tell, the video shows a tall boy with bright orange hair and a dark green hoodie standing in front of a large window. It looks like there’s ocean outside… is he on a boat? Suddenly, several Monokumas rush in and begin climbing on him.

“REI!!” Becca shouts as she stands up and steps towards the screen. The audio over the speakers fills with the sound of loud beeping and the Monokumas explode, killing the boy. The screen shows the remaining bits of the boy that are hardly recognizable as human, while everything else in sight is covered in blood. The video ends.

Becca stands there in shock, tears flowing down her face. “Rei…” A short moment later, she snaps out of it. “I need to… I gotta find Aki!” She runs out of the seating area and onto the elevator.

“That one was brutal,” Hatsumi comments, shaking a little in fear.

I nod in agreement as I pull my gaze away from the window and stare at the floor. Suddenly, I think of something and I stand up.

“I’m… gonna go walk around for a bit,” I say.

“Stay safe,” Toka says. I nod and leave.

I take the elevator down to the lobby where I find the same group still sitting in the small seating area. I walk up to them.

“Olivia, I wanted to ask you something because of your talent.”

“What?” She seems upset, likely due to all these horrible videos…

“Um, sorry to bother you… but, is there any way that the deaths in those videos could’ve been faked? Like, with the kind of makeup you do, or from editing the footage.”

“Oh. I doubt it. There’s some telltale signs that I’ve studied to make my shit look more like the real thing, but those all seemed too real. Only one that could be faked I think is the kid who was poisoned, but I don’t think they’d fake just one of ‘em…”

“Oh…” I’m disappointed, but I kind of figured I was wrong. “Thanks anyways.” I leave the group alone and take the elevator up to the second guest floor.

I head back to my room and lie down for a little while. There’s not much to do besides wait for the next video.

Some time goes by and I expect the video to start any moment now. A little more time passes and I check the clock on the nightstand to see how much longer it is.

It’s 2:11pm. The last video was at 1pm. I’m confused for a moment before I realize what this might mean.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _severe, bloody head wound_

Monokuma said he’d stop showing us the videos if someone was killed within the hour between them. Worry fills my mind and I quickly leave my room, searching for the others. No one’s in the hallway, so I take the elevator down to check the first guest floor and see if any of the girls are there.

When I step off the elevator, I see Rikizou leaning against the wall looking at Becca, who’s crouched down to the ground. Is she crying…? She’s next to something… no, someone… I step forward hesitantly to see what’s going on, and look just past her when I see it.

Akitsuna Miyabe, the Ultimate Sculptor, is dead.

_ding dong dong ding “A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the trial will begin!"_

My vision goes blurry and I fall to the ground.

…

I slowly open my eyes. My head hurts… I look up to see someone standing above me.

“Did you have a nice nap?” Rikizou offers a hand to help me up. I accept it and he pulls me up to a standing position. The first thing I notice is that the light coming through the window - or rather, coming from the screens - is now a bright blood pink rather than the soft sunny glow it was earlier.

I glance over to Akitsuna’s body and see Toka crouched down next to him while a few others are looking around the area. Becca is a couple feet away from the body, sitting on the floor and sobbing. I look back to Rikizou.

“How long was I out for?”

“Just a few minutes. Enough time for everyone who heard the announcement to come see what happened,” Rikizou explains. “I don’t know how long we have before the trial, so I was wondering if you wanted to investigate together. If we find enough evidence, we should be able to figure it out!” He speaks with a friendly grin.

“Sure…” I agree to investigate with him, baffled as to how he can be so cheerful when there’s a dead body just down the hallway from us. I don’t want to even look at it…

“Not a fan of dead bodies? I’ve already looked at the fatal wound, I can tell you what I found if you don’t want to look for yourself,” he offers, noticing my hesitance.

Before I respond, it kinda hits me.

Someone just fucking died. And one of the other people in here with us killed him.

What the fuck?

“We don’t have to stay in the hallway. There are some rooms I’d like to check anyways.” Rikizou’s words snap me out of my thoughts.

I shake my head in bewilderment. “This guy is dead on the floor, how are you acting so calm?”

“I know… death isn’t something you see every day. However, I think it’s important to focus. Remember the rules of this killing game? If we’re unable to find out who killed Akitsuna, then we’ll all be punished with a group execution. I’d rather not die this early on.”

I don’t like the way he said it, but I have to admit that he’s right. I nod. “Let’s just… get this over with, then.” I think back to what he said earlier in the conversation. “You can tell me about the fatal wound now. I don’t think I wanna look at it…”

“It looks like someone bashed his skull in with something small and blunt. You can probably see the blood from here, it’s pretty gory… The killer really wanted to finish their job, it seems.” Rikizou gestures to the corpse as he speaks before turning back to me. “Something I found interesting was the fact that his body is right outside Takeyo’s room. I was about to go look inside for clues when I noticed you were starting to wake up.”

“Okay… was there anything else around the body?” I ask.

“There was a hammer covered in blood. I’d say there’s a fairly good chance that’s the murder weapon,” he notes.

“Alright… let’s check Takeyo’s room now, I guess.” I’m still a little out of it but I follow Rikizou into Takeyo’s room.

It looks nearly identical to my room, but on top of her dresser there’s what appears to be a movie script. I guess that’s her talent item…?

Rikizou enters her bathroom and I follow him in. Again, it’s pretty much the same as mine.

“Intriguing,” Rikizou comments, standing next to the shower. I walk next to him to see what he’s referring to.

There’s some blood on the floor of the shower. It looks mostly washed away, but there’s definitely still traces there.

“Either the killer went back to her own room to clean off the blood, or they entered the nearest room and were lucky not to be seen by its owner,” Rikizou theorizes.

I don’t comment and we leave Takeyo’s room. Would she really have killed…? Someone she knew had already been killed in those videos, and she didn’t seem incredibly attached to him… Either way, she shouldn’t have been worried about someone close to her dying anymore.

Rikizou stops in the hallway and turns to face me. “Oh, have you seen the Monokuma File?”

“The what?” I stare at him blankly.

“The Monokuma File. Monokuma mentioned them when we received the Monopads, and the one with information on Akitsuna’s death is now accessible,” he explains.

“Oh…” Right. I completely forgot about that… I take out my Monopad and read the file.

_Monokuma File 01_   
_Victim: Akitsuna Miyabe_   
_Time of death: 1:46pm_   
_Cause of death: fatal head wound_

‘Fatal head wound’ is putting it lightly… I put my Monpad back in my pocket. Just then, I notice the window at the end of the hall change the screen display to Monokuma once again.

_"Erm, so ah... I'm getting tired of waiting. What say we just get started, hm? It's time for the long-awaited trial! Now then, please take the elevator to the roof! Puhuhu. See you soon!"_

The screen switches back to pink and moments later, the elevator arrives on the floor we’re on and opens.

“Shall we?” Rikizou gestures to the elevator door that some of the others have already started to enter. I nod and we step inside.

The elevator stops on the second guest floor to collect Kaisuke before it ascends past all the entertainment floors and brings us to the roof.


	5. Chapter 1: Trial

The elevator doors open when we’re on the roof. As Monokuma described, there’s a trial room set up here. There are twelve podiums arranged in a circle with a gap in one end where Monokuma sits on a chair raised up on a pedestal. In front of him stands a Monomaid we haven’t seen before, this one fully white but still divided down the center with a line like the others.

The most notable part of the roof is the dome covering the area. Like every other window in this place, it’s a digital screen, however this one displays a night sky over a landscape. It looks like we’re at the top of a tall building looking over endless grassy green hills, trees here and there, but I know it’s probably fake. There’s no way of really knowing what’s out there.

I approach the center of the roof area and look closer at the podiums. Each one is labelled with a name, so I walk around the circle and search for mine before noticing something. Akitsuna’s podium is occupied by a tall stand with a picture frame right around where his head would be if he were standing there. Inside the picture frame is a greyed out portrait of his head with an X painted over it in the colour of blood. I frown at the sight. It’s hard to believe I only met him the other day and he’s just gone…

Once everyone’s standing at their podiums, Monokuma speaks. “Let’s begin with a basic explanation of the trial! So, your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out ‘whodunnit,’ then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one… then I’ll punish everyone besides the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will check out of the hotel! Now, get discussing the evidence, and I’ll let you know when it’s time to vote!”

This is… surreal. I can’t even process the fact that someone actually killed someone here, and now we’re being forced to figure out who it was?

“Who did it!? Who killed Aki!?” Becca shouts at everyone in the circle through tears. Seeing someone I knew die was horrible, but it must be insanely worse for her, having known him for years and having just seen her other friend’s death in one of those videos…

“Why don’t we start by taking a look at the Monokuma File?” Rikizou suggests.

Everyone falls silent for a moment. This is getting nowhere…

Reichiru breaks the silence, listing the Monokuma file from memory. “Victim, Akitsuna Miyabe. Time of death, 1:46pm. Cause of death, fatal head wound.”

“With that cause of death, I’d think the murder weapon is the hammer that was next to him,” Kaisuke says.

“I agree,” Toka states. “The impact shattered his skull and it looks like the killer struck him several times to get the job done.” He seems cold and serious.

“Why Aki, though?” Becca speaks in a broken voice.

“More important question is where the fuck did they get a hammer?” Olivia asks.

“W-where could there, be a hammer, in the hotel…” Osami looks deep in thought.

“Monomaids,” Reichiru states.

“H-huh?” Osami looks up at Reichiru.

“We can ask the Monomaids for anything. Monokuma wasn’t specific, but any item small enough that the Monomaids can carry, it seems they have access to,” she explains.

“You’re saying I could’ve gotten my makeup shit by now?” Olivia asks in disbelief. Reichiru nods without another word.

“S-so, the kill-killer… probably asked a Monomaid f-for the hammer…” Osami recaps Reichiru’s statement.

“Is there a way to find out who asked or when they asked for a hammer?” Chiho suggests. “Like some sort of record on the Monomaid’s memory?” She looks up at Monokuma for an answer.

“Nope! All request history is strictly private!” Monokuma shuts down her suggestion.

“Oh well… Maybe there’s another way to know…” Chiho frowns and thinks.

“Reichiru seems like the only one who knew about this Monomaid stuff, maybe she’s the killer,” Hatsumi suggests.

“I’m not. I have no one I fear losing, so the motive had no effect on me. If you don’t believe that, then while I don’t have an alibi for Akitsuna’s time of death, I took the elevator with a group of people from the lobby after the body discovery announcement played. They clearly saw me come from the kitchen, and I couldn’t have gotten there without them seeing,” she explains.

“U-uh…” Takeyo starts. “The motive is a good point, did anyone seem worried about losing someone?”

No one else is speaking. I guess this is my chance to make a contribution to the trial…

“Not to point any fingers, but…” That’s not a great way to start. This is a trial, pointing fingers is exactly what we’re doing. Nonetheless, I continue. “I remember, in the seating area on the second floor, we were talking about the motive in a group. The people who seemed the most nervous about losing someone were Toka and Hatsumi.”

“Right, I mentioned my brother, didn’t I? I was worried, and I guess now that it’s happened I’m glad to know he’s safe… but I’m not the killer,” Hatsumi says. “I can account for Toka and Rikizou, too. We were all still in that seating area. Rikizou left right around two, after the time of death.”

“Yeah,” Toka confirms. “We stayed there until the body discovery announcement.”

Alibis, right. That’s a thing we should discuss… and I don’t have one.

“We were still in the lobby,” Olivia mentions. “Me, Chiho, Kaisuke, and Osami. We stayed there pretty much all day.” She still seems off… I don’t know whether it’s because of Akitsuna’s death, the videos, or both.

“Does anyone else have an alibi?” Rikizou questions. “Jinshi?”

Why is he asking me first? “I was in my room… I needed some time to think.” That doesn’t sound good at all. “I didn’t kill him, I swear… we just need to look at the rest of the evidence to find out who it was…” I don’t know how convincing I’m being, but I try my best.

“I’ll trust you for now!” Rikizou smiles at me. Something tells me that’s a lie. “Alright, then… Becca?”

“You think… I’m a suspect!?” Becca looks at Rikizou in shock.

“You could be. You’re lacking an alibi and you’d be able to get close to Akitsuna easily enough for him to let his guard down and give you a chance to strike,” Rikizou explains. “Besides, I overheard you saying that you were going to look for him after the last motive video played.”

“I…” Her eyes widen and she starts to cry again. “I could never do that! Aki and Rei were the only two people I had, why the hell would I kill one of them right after seeing the other’s death!? I couldn’t even find him when I went to look, not until after he was dead!”

“That doesn’t rule you out as a suspect,” Rikizou smirks at her.

I can’t stand to watch this. “I don’t think she’s the killer. I spent a lot of time with the both of them in the time since we got here, I don’t think she’d kill. Objectively, I guess it’s possible, but we shouldn’t waste our time on unlikely possibilities if we don’t want to die.” This really is a do-or-die situation, and we have no idea when Monokuma could cut off our discussion and tell us to vote. I’m finally starting to get focused on the trial…

“Fine, fine,” he agrees to drop it. “How about you, Takeyo?”

“I was in my room the whole time too,” Takeyo says. “I didn’t leave until I heard the body discovery announcement…”

“That checks out with the time I saw you leave your room during the investigation period,” Rikizou confirms, “but why didn’t you exit your room when you heard the murder taking place? Surely you must’ve heard something, the body was right outside your door.”

“U-uh, I heard a little bit, but I didn’t think much of it… looking back, I should’ve tried to stop them,” she sighs with a regretful expression.

“I’d understand if you were scared though, with the motive active,” Kaisuke adds. “I probably wouldn’t have left my room if I heard something just outside.”

“It might not have been only _outside_ her room, though,” Rikizou counters. “Jinshi, you remember what we found in Takeyo’s room, right?”

He’s talking about… “There was blood on the floor of her shower. Rikizou said the killer might’ve used it to wash themselves off, considering how Akitsuna died… there was a lot of blood…”

Takeyo’s eyes widen. “I-I… There was?”

“Indeed there was. Are you sure no one snuck into your room during that time, or were you the killer?” Rikizou has her backed into a corner.

“I didn’t… I don’t know…” Takeyo looks speechless.

Hatsumi frowns, seeming unsure about this. “Was there any other evidence? Where else did people look?”

“When we got on the elevator on the first guest floor, Osami was already inside. The elevator stopped on the second guest floor for Kaisuke before ascending here,” Reichiru recalls.

“Right, I went up to the guys’ floor to check Akitsuna’s room,” Kaisuke explains. “Figured there might be some evidence. His lamp was broken.”

“Why would his lamp be broken?” Takeyo asks.

“I mean his friend died,” Hatsumi notes. “Becca said the two of them knew that last dude that got killed in the videos.”

“I don’t know if that’d be related to the murder, though…” I think aloud.

“What about you, Osami?” Rikizou changes the topic slightly. “Where were you looking when the elevator came?”

“U-um, I-I…” Osami seems even more nervous than usual.

“What’s up, dude?” Olivia faces him.

Osami is shaking. He clearly doesn’t want to share… Did he find something? He has an alibi, so he doesn’t have to worry about getting accused…

“Where were you?” Rikizou repeats.

He remains silent.

“It’s okay, dude,” Olivia says, reaching over to pat him on the shoulder since their podiums are next to each other. “I know you’re not the killer, so you got nothin’ to worry about.”

He’s silent for another moment before finally speaking. “I-I w… I went to the l-laundry room,” he explains.

“Why were you so scared to tell us you were in the laundry room?” Kaisuke asks.

“I-it’s… n-nevermind…”

“Why were you in the laundry room?” Takeyo asks, clearly confused.

Osami hesitates again.

“I don’t think we need to know why, just whether he found anything down there,” I say. “Osami, did you find any evidence in the laundry room?”

“Y-yes, well, maybe… There was some laundry already running, a-and… I don’t know w-why I checked it, but… there was…” he trails off as he explains.

“What was there?” I prompt.

“Blood… i-it was a skirt, with blood on it… There might’ve been more, b-but I didn’t want to search through a girl’s laundry…”

Is that why he was nervous? Something tells me there was more to it. In any case, this piece of evidence is important.

“What’d the skirt look like?” Olivia asks.

“I-it was white…” As he describes it, I glance around at all the girls. Chiho wears a white skirt, but she has an alibi… “And s-short…” The only other girl with a white skirt is Takeyo.

“I-I, it was probably my skirt but I don’t know how- I don’t know why there was blood on it,” Takeyo rambles nervously.

“It’s alright,” Hatsumi says. “It happens. You can’t always predict your cycle, especially in a place like this when we don’t know what day it is.”

Osami looks at Takeyo apologetically, seeming to realize his mistake. It looks like he feels even worse now, for bringing it up…

“U-um, yeah, that’s what it was… the blood in the shower, too…” Takeyo looks nervous.

“That’s incorrect,” Rikizou states.

“Huh…?” Takeyo looks up in shock.

“Back off fuckwad, you don’t know how this shit works,” Olivia defends Takeyo.

“You’re correct, I wouldn’t know, but I know that she’s lying,” he states.

“How would you know that?” I ask, having no idea where he’s getting this from.

“In the Nurse’s Office, I noticed several prescriptions for the guests here. There was a bottle of estrogen pills, commonly taken by transgender women, with your name on the label, Takeyo,” Rikizou explains. “Unless you had been injured, there’s no way the blood in your shower and on your skirt could have been yours.”

I figured reading those would be an invasion of privacy, but I guess Rikizou doesn’t see it that way, or just doesn’t care…

Takeyo’s eyes widen. I can’t tell whether she’s shocked because he’s wrong, because he’s right and just outed her, or because of his implication that because of this, she’s the killer.

“Is that true, Takeyo?” Hatsumi asks.

“I…” Takeyo seems frozen in panic.

“Look, if anyone says anything transphobic to you, I won’t hesitate to punch them,” Toka offers. I get the feeling that no one here would judge her for something like that, but then again I had the feeling no one here would kill, and I was wrong on that…

“I…” Takeyo sighs. She seems to open up with the offered support and continues to speak, quietly. “He’s right.”

“Then you’re the blackened, aren’t you?” Rikizou continues.

“Huh? Wait-” Takeyo realizes what she’s just admitted.

“I’ll admit that under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t have done something like that. It was an asshole move by all means, but there was an immense hole in your excuse and I couldn’t let you get away with that. I don’t want to die yet, after all,” Rikizou explains. At least he admits that he shouldn’t have outed her, but this means everything lines up… is she really the killer?

“It wasn’t me! I couldn’t…” Takeyo is really starting to panic now. “Wait, Osami, you never answered why you went to the laundry room in the first place!” She turns the discussion. “Why were you down there snooping through laundry?”

Osami looks surprised and upset that the conversation has come back to that. He also seems a little scared by Takeyo’s tone…

“Maybe you have an alibi, but that doesn’t mean you had _nothing_ to do with the murder!” Takeyo continues to press him.

“I-I…” Osami trembles as Takeyo stares him down.

“Why were you down there!?” She shouts. It’s a little scary to see her acting like this…

“I-I…” Osami is breathing heavily. The volume of his voice drops near a whisper. “I w…” I can’t quite make out what he says.

“What?” Takeyo calms down slightly and continues to stare at him.

“W-when I saw the body, I-I got sc-scared… I wet m-myself and I needed to wash my p-pants…” Osami stares hard at the floor, avoiding eye contact with everyone. Is he crying…? He seems really embarrassed, understandably so… but in a situation like this, seeing a dead body in person for possibly the first time in his life, I understand.

The room falls silent. Olivia reaches out and rests a hand on Osami’s shoulder.

“So, Takeyo, does that help your defense?” Rikizou asks.

She’s silent. Everyone’s looking at her except Osami who’s looking at the floor and Olivia who’s looking at Osami.

“You made Osami admit to something he’s ashamed of that has no relevance to the case,” Rikizou continues. “Does knowing that help you prove your innocence at all?”

Takeyo remains silent. It’s hard to tell, but it seems like she regrets pushing Osami like that…

“Did you…?” Becca glares at Takeyo, speaking in a weak voice.

“What…” Takeyo starts to speak, slowly getting angry again. “What motive would I have had?”

“You wanted to get out of here, didn’t you?” Rikizou says. “Or maybe it was self defense…” He considers.

Takeyo stays silent once again.

“Did Aki try to attack you?” Becca asks. “If you could kill him like that, then you could’ve stopped him without killing him and found me! He might’ve gotten upset seeing the video of Rei, but I could’ve calmed him down!” She starts to cry again. “You didn’t have to…”

Takeyo avoids eye contact and remains silent.

Self defense… it’s plausible, especially with what Becca just said. She’s known Akitsuna for years, if she thinks it’s possible for him to have attempted murder then it probably is. The more I think about it, the more I can piece it together, almost like I know how it might’ve happened…

“Maybe…” I start to speak before I catch myself. I’m not sure what exactly I’m doing, but it feels right… “Maybe we should look at this case from start to finish… assuming it was self defense,” I suggest.

Everyone’s looking at me… My uncertainty grows as I feel the pressure, but I can’t stop now. They’re all expecting me to talk… so I begin.

“It all started at 1pm today, when the motive video played was the death of someone named Rei, a friend of Becca and Akitsuna.  
When Akitsuna saw this video, he was in his room, and broke his lamp out of frustration. Blinded by the rage and despair he felt seeing his friend die, he set out to kill someone without considering the risk he was taking or the fact that the rest of us, including another friend of his, would die if he got away with it.  
He requested a hammer from one of the Monomaids, planning to use it as his murder weapon. He then waited on the first guest floor outside of the culprit’s room, waiting for them to come out so he could strike. He was overpowered by the culprit who took the hammer and killed him in self defense.  
Realizing what they’d done, the culprit dropped the hammer next to Akitsuna’s body and went back into their room to shower the blood off. There was blood on their clothes, too, so they brought them to the basement to wash them in the laundry room before going back to their room to hide and wait for someone to find the body.  
Due to the location of Akitsuna’s body, the bloody clothes found in the laundry room, the lack of alibi, and the actions of the killer throughout this trial, the culprit in this case is none other than… Takeyo Kaba, the Ultimate Actress.”

After I finish speaking, everyone looks at Takeyo again. She stares at me, seeming frustrated and deep in thought. It’s silent for a moment before she looks away, avoiding eye contact, and speaks.

“I didn’t want to… it was his fault! He was gonna kill me!” She starts to cry a little as she admits to her crime.

“Maybe out in the real world you’d get a lighter sentence for killing in self defense, but the only sentence here is execution,” Rikizou says.

“I know…” Takeyo admits defeat.

“Puhuhuhu! Looks like you’re ready to vote! Now then, use the lever in front of you to make your selection! Who will be chosen as the blackened?” Monokuma breaks the silence.

I can’t believe we have to do this… I vote for Takeyo, knowing it’s the right answer. I didn’t want it to end up like this… I thought we could work together, I didn’t think anyone would even _try_ to kill…

When everyone’s votes are in, a section of the screen covering the dome above us just behind Monokuma displays the image of a slot machine spinning through portraits of all our faces. All three land on Takeyo.

“Congratulations! You got it right! The blackened in this case, the one who killed Akitsuna Miyabe, is none other than Takeyo Kaba!” Monokuma congratulates us. It doesn’t make it feel any better.

Becca wordlessly glares at Takeyo, who seems to be awkwardly avoiding looking in her direction.

“If it was self defense, I understand, but… you really wanted to make sure he was dead, didn’t you?” Toka says, referencing the brutality of the wound.

“I… I didn’t know what to do…” Takeyo avoids eye contact with everyone. “I know it’s over, so just execute me already. I… I don’t want to die, but there’s no choice now…” She sounds defeated… She is, but it’s awful to see her like this.

“Now then! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Takeyo Kaba, the Ultimate Actress!”

Everyone is silent. The only sound is Becca’s sniffling as she glares at Takeyo.

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s… PUNISHMENT TIIIME!!” A bright red button appears in front of Monokuma, and he swings a gavol down to hit it.

The white Monomaid drags her away from her podium and the screen display on the dome changes to show her execution. The screen is sectioned off to display the same thing for all of us to see no matter what angle we’re standing at.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _zombies (in Monokuma form), being torn to pieces_

_ZOMBIEKUMA! STARRING TAKEYO KABA_

_Takeyo is placed into a film set designed to look like a living room. To the left side is an area leading to the front door of a house. A TV screen is playing in front of her as she sits on a couch with a bowl of popcorn, fear in her eyes._

_The camera starts rolling and several Monokumas modified to look like zombies start scratching at the front door. Takeyo glances at the door in fear before standing up and looking out the window behind her to see them. She dashes over to the door to make sure it’s locked before hiding behind the couch inside._

_She’s cowering in fear as the zombie Monokumas scratch at the door, hitting it hard over and over until it breaks down. She doesn’t move at first until she realizes they know exactly where she is, and she begins to run where she can. The director Monokuma stops her from running off the set and she’s forced to face the zombie Monokumas._

_She begins to scream in fear, trying to fight them off, but there’s too many and they’re too strong. They begin to devour her, tearing into her head and eating her brain. She’s clawed and bitten to pieces before they leave her remains on the ground of the living room scene._

_The director Monokuma signals the cameraman Monokuma to stop filming before applauding Takeyo on her performance._

_Takeyo Kaba, the Ultimate Actress, is dead._

The screen display slowly fades back to the nighttime scene over the landscape it was before. I stare at the spot on the screen where I last saw Takeyo.

She’s really…

Three days here and two people are dead.

My mind is blank. I can’t think of anything and Takeyo’s execution continues to play over and over in my head.

After a moment, I notice some people stepping down from their podiums. I turn to see the elevator’s opened. I follow them inside and head straight to my room.


	6. Chapter 1: Post-Trial

As soon as I’m in my room I flop down onto my bed.

What the fuck happened today?!

They’re… they’re dead. Two of the twelve people we arrived here with. There’s ten left now… _Why?_

Why did this have to happen? Why did anyone listen to that bear?

Becca even said this was preventable if she were able to calm Akitsuna down. But she couldn’t find him soon enough. And now he and Takeyo are both dead.

I stay in my room and stare at my ceiling for a long while, trying to forget what happened today. Eventually, I realize I’m starving and get up. I check the clock to see that it’s just past 9pm. Only an hour until the dining and banquet halls are closed, so I better go get food now.

I take the elevator down to the ground floor alone. The lobby is empty and I make my way into the banquet hall.

I see Becca sitting alone at a table. I’m not sure whether she’d want company or space, so I hesitantly walk towards her.

“Jinshi,” she says. Her voice sounds dead, like she’s been crying all afternoon, and I don’t doubt she has.

“Hey, Becca.” I take a seat next to her and the orange Monomaid comes up and hands me a menu.

“I just… figured we’d take on the world together, y’know?” Not wanting to interrupt Becca, I point out my order to the Monomaid who nods and takes my menu before rushing off.

“We were gonna move out of that old orphanage… We were gonna work together, find other humans… Maybe work with some aliens to come to a compromise where we could share Earth and they stop tryin’ to replace us,” she explains. “Aki and Rei, they always supported me. They were the only ones who didn’t call me stupid or weird for my theories.”

I nod to show I’m listening as she speaks. I feel bad for her… it must be awful to lose the two people closest to you and not have any family to go back to.

The Monomaid brings me my food and I start eating. I want to say something to comfort Becca, but I can’t think of anything…

“I need to solve this,” she says with a newfound determination. I look at her. “I need to find the aliens behind this and stop them! I might not be as strong as I was with Aki and Rei, but I’m gonna do it! I gotta!” She gives me a weak and determined smile.

“I believe in you,” I assure her.

Just the fact that my assumption about no one here being willing to murder has been proven wrong makes it hard to have any hope about this situation. But seeing Becca’s determination after all this is inspiring… Even if it’s not aliens behind this, I’d like to know who is making us do all this. Who is it behind Monokuma, and why is this all happening? How powerful must they be to keep us all here and capture people we knew to kill them?

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

Just as I’m finishing up my meal, the announcement plays. The orange Monomaid collects my empty plate.

“Night, Jinshi,” Becca says as she stands up.

“Goodnight,” I respond, standing up shortly after. I better leave if the doors are getting locked soon, assuming I’d be stuck in here all night and unable to sleep due to the rules…

I take the elevator back to the second guest floor and re-enter my room. I crash on the bed pretty quickly and fall asleep.

…

“Hmm… very intriguing…” Rikizou speaks quietly to himself alone in his room as he re-reads the note he found during the investigation.

“Maybe it wasn’t relevant to this case, but it’s definitely something to keep in mind. Mr. ‘I don’t remember my talent’ is a _liar_ …” He grins and folds up the paper, tucking it into his pocket.

…

The Mastermind turns around in their chair, gazing across their now expanded display of screens showing the surveillance camera footage from around the hotel.

“Finally starting to get interesting… I guess I can see why Hirai liked this so much,” they speak to themselves, smiling a little.

“If only…” they trail off and shake their head, hugging a Monokuma plush tight to their chest.

“I can do this on my own.”


	7. Chapter 2: Day 1

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I did not sleep well. There’s no way I’d be able to sleep in even if I tried. I get up and take a shower, recalling that I was too exhausted after the events of yesterday to take one in the evening.

In my first two showers here, I spent time thinking about what I was going to do. This time, I can’t think of anything… Why did people have to die yesterday…?

I dry off, get dressed, and leave my room. There’s no one in the hallway so I get on the elevator alone.

On the elevator, I press the button for the ground floor. It’s not until after the doors are closed and the elevator is moving down that I notice the button for the first entertainment floor has a dim glow like the others. Does that mean it’s accessible now?

I step off the elevator, deciding to check it out after breakfast. I start to walk towards the dining hall before noticing Osami sitting alone in the lobby.

“Morning, Osami,” I greet him, walking towards where he’s sitting.

“O-oh- morning, Jinshi…” He looks slightly startled, and overall shaking just as bad or worse than he was on our first day here.

“Are you okay?” I know the answer is probably no, considering what happened yesterday, but I want to show my concern.

“N-no… I can hear…” He trails off and I take a seat next to him.

That’s right, when we got here he was saying he could hear two people who had died here. Does that mean…

“Akitsuna and Takeyo?” I ask.

He nods. “Th-they’re fighting… about, what happened…”

That probably isn’t very fun to hear… Having no experience with this kind of thing, I have no idea of what to suggest. I’m still a little skeptical about the whole ‘hearing dead people’ thing, but I’m trying to keep an open mind since denying it might make Osami feel worse.

“It’ll be okay,” I say in a lame attempt to comfort him.

He nods slightly and turns back to the window screen again. He looks exhausted… How long has he been here? Maybe he couldn’t sleep and came to sit here during nighttime.

I leave him be for now and enter the dining hall. There’s no one around so I pass through into the kitchen, grab myself a bowl of cereal, and sit down alone in the dining hall.

Remembering the button in the elevator, I take out my Monopad to look at the map while I eat. Sure enough, the map of the first entertainment floor is now available. It looks like the entire floor is sectioned off into two large rooms, one containing a movie theatre and the other an arcade.

When I've finished my cereal, the orange Monomaid collects my bowl before I can do anything with it. It runs off before I can even thank it… I stand up and leave the dining hall.

I get on the elevator and press the button for the first entertainment floor. It stops on the first guest floor and Toka and Hatsumi step on.

“Hey Jinshi, have you seen the map?” Hatsumi asks. I can tell she’s still a little upset about yesterday, but she’s hiding it pretty well and seems to be looking forward to seeing the arcade.

“Yeah, I was just heading up to check out the new floor,” I reply.

“Toka just told me about the arcade,” she says as the elevator starts to move.

We arrive on the first entertainment floor and are greeted by a new Monomaid. I guess it makes sense, if there’s one for each floor… This one is half blue and is standing directly between the entrance to the arcade and the entrance to the movie theatre.

Hatsumi leaves the elevator and practically runs into the arcade, Toka and I catching up behind her.

The arcade is dark, lit up by neon lights and arcade machines. I notice a prize counter off to one side. As I walk up to it, the blue Monomaid comes rushing in from outside and hops up onto the counter.

While Hatsumi and Toka start playing some of the games here, I take a look at the items at the prize counter. They’re pretty standard for arcade prizes, except, nearly everything here is Monokuma themed. The stuffed animals are just plush Monokumas, and all the candy and toys seem to be Monokuma shaped. Not only that, but it looks like the currency listed is something called ‘Monocoins’ which look like little coins with Monokuma’s face on them.

Just as I’m observing the currency, I hear something that sounds like coins across the arcade. I approach the machine that Toka and Hatsumi are standing in front of.

“What’re these?” Hatsumi asks, picking up the coins that came out of the machine.

“I think they’re called ‘Monocoins’,” I say. “There’s a prize counter over there. It looks like you can use them to buy stuff, but it’s all Monokuma-themed.”

Hatsumi looks past me and peeks at the prize counter. “Cool.” She shoves the coins into her pocket and moves onto the next game.

“You sleep alright?” Toka stops following Hatsumi around and strikes up a conversation with me.

“Ah, not really…” I could hardly sleep at all after yesterday. “What about you?”

“I slept alright. I’m just worried about getting out of this place,” he sighs.

“Me too…” I’m also worried about whether Monokuma will introduce another motive to get someone to kill, but I don’t want to sound so pessimistic.

“Hey Toka,” Hatsumi interrupts our conversation, not that we were talking about much at this point. “Wanna play this one with me?” She’s standing next to a machine for some kind of shooting game. It looks like the goal is to shoot as many enemies as you can and whoever kills more wins.

“The Ultimate ESports Competitor challenges me to a video game?” He laughs slightly as he talks, walking towards her. I follow, kind of wanting to see this.

“You’ll lose, but it could be fun!” She insists.

“Try me.” He stands next to her and picks up one of the gun controllers.

They start playing and I watch them closely. They’re both doing insanely well… I expected this from Hatsumi, but I didn’t know Toka played these kinds of games. In the end, Hatsumi still wins, but it was a lot closer than I expected.

“Damn, you’re pretty good!” Hatsumi compliments.

“No match for someone with your talent, but I tried,” Toka smiles.

“Eh, I’ve got my title for a reason but I actually like playin’ casual games better. I just got into professional competitive play because I’m good at it,” she explains.

“Wanna find something co-op to play next, then?” Toka suggests.

“Hell yeah! Jinshi, you wanna join too? We can try n’ find something three-player,” Hatsumi invites me.

“Oh, no thanks. I’d like to check out the movie theatre now, but maybe another time,” I reply.

“Alright, seeya later!” Hatsumi waves at me before turning around to look for another game.

“Bye,” Toka adds before following her.

I leave the arcade and take a moment to adjust to the light through the windows in the hallway. Or rather, the screens… that still bothers me. I walk past the elevator and enter the movie theatre.

It’s a large room with a huge movie screen on one end, the projector installed at the top of the wall opposite to it. Below the projector there’s a huge bookshelf full of various movies. There are exactly ten seats facing the movie screen. It makes me wonder… if there were twelve of us when we arrived, and only ten seats here, then maybe Rikizou was right about these floors being unlocked after murders started happening. I’d assume we’ll get the next one after the next murder case… which hopefully doesn’t happen.

I walk around the back to see what kind of movies there are. The first one that catches my eye is one that I remember seeing a while ago… starring an actress I briefly knew.

I pick up the movie and see the image of Takeyo on the cover. The scenes from her execution fill my head. I still can’t believe it… Everything that happened yesterday feels so unreal, but I know for a fact that it happened.

“Oh, hello Jinshi!” I’m snapped out of my thoughts by Rikizou’s greeting.

“Ah, hi…” I put the movie back where I found it and turn to face him.

“I was right, wasn’t I? We have access to this floor now that a murder has taken place,” he speaks with his usual unwavering smile.

“Yeah, seems so…” I still don’t like how he acts about all this.

“I wonder what’s on the next entertainment floor… I guess we’ll just have to wait until another person kills!”

I don’t respond to that. Is he trying to get a reaction out of me with how he’s acting?

“I wonder how they’ll do it… Stabbing… Choking… Poison…”

“Can you stop that?” He’s really getting on my nerves. I don’t want to think about murder, I want to think about how we can get out of here without anyone else dying…

“Oh! Did I bother you? I’m sorry, I’m just curious!” He smiles and scratches the back of his head. “Would you like to watch a movie?” He gestures to the shelves full of movies next to us.

“Not right now…” I need to clear my head. “I’ll see you later,” I say, hoping to successfully ditch him here.

“Going so soon? Alright, I’ll see you later, then!” He smiles and waves goodbye as I leave.

I can’t quite decide how I feel about him. He’s friendly, and certainly helped a lot in solving the murder yesterday… The key point of evidence was due to his snooping, though, and he’s always so cheerful when discussing murders. It’s hard to tell what kind of person he is.

I decide to take the elevator down to the second level and get something from the coffee shop. When I step off the elevator I see… blood…?

“Hey Jinshi!” Olivia greets me casually while I stand there in shock. There’s a huge cut in the side of her cheek, with blood down the side of her face and neck.

“Ahh right, you’re not used to this yet. I do this kinda shit every day!” She grins at me. It takes me a moment to realize that it’s fake.

“R-right, your talent…” She’s the Ultimate SFX Makeup Artist. Still a little strange that she does it _every_ day…

“I reacted just about the same as you,” Kaisuke speaks up from the seating area nearby.

“Yeah, it’s kinda fun to fuck with people but all my friends are used to it by now,” she explains. “Finally got all my makeup shit from the Monomaids ‘cause of what Reichiru said yesterday.”

“Right…” We can request anything we want, so long as the Monomaids can carry it. I wonder how obscure we’d have to get before they refuse our requests…

Olivia sits down next to Kaisuke and I walk past them, still a little shaken up by the sight of Olivia’s makeup. She definitely earned her ultimate talent title… I head into the coffee shop and see Chiho at one of the tables.

“Hi, Jinshi,” she speaks in a tired voice. I wave as I walk up to the counter and order a coffee from the Monomaid. Once it's handed me my drink, I take a seat next to Chiho.

“Are you doing alright?” I ask, though the answer is pretty obvious.

“No,” she sighs. “I thought this place wasn’t so bad… but if Monokuma does another motive like that last one, and someone else kills, I don’t know how much longer I can handle it…”

“Me too,” I say. I hate this place, but it must be so much worse for her with the first motive targeting someone she knew.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up a victim here,” she states in a hopeless tone.

“What? Don’t talk like that…” I try to help bring her hopes up, but in all honesty, I feel the same.

“Look at me,” she gestures to the wheelchair. “I’d be an easy target, I can’t run away.”

I frown, struggling to think of a way to reassure her. I can’t say that no one here would do that. I’ve been proven wrong in my assumption that no one would kill, so how can I know that no one would take advantage of her disability like that?

“I’ll watch out for you,” is what I finally end up saying.

“Hm?” She hums in a questioning tone as she sips her coffee.

“I don’t know how much it’ll help, but I’ll do what I can to look out for you. I don’t want anyone else to die, you included… and I don’t want you to lose hope just because you’re at a disadvantage that you have no choice over.”

“Thank you, Jinshi.” She still seems tired and a little hopeless, but she gives me a sincere smile.

I finish my drink sitting with her in silence before handing my empty cup to the Monomaid and leaving the coffee shop. Olivia and Kaisuke are still in the seating area near the elevator, so I walk over.

“Oh, hey Jinshi!” Olivia greets me as I approach.

“Hey, mind if I sit with you guys?” I ask, stepping towards a seat just across from them.

“Go ahead,” Kaisuke responds. I sit down.

“I was just telling Olivia about my talent,” he says.

“Oh?” He’s the Ultimate Hairstylist, right? I’m interested to know about that, too.

“Fuck yeah, he’s got a whole salon!” Olivia grins.

“A salon?” He can’t be much older than me, right? To have a salon of his own… he must really be talented.

“Yeah, I mainly started it up to prove to my family that I could make a living with my talent and I don’t need their financial support. As a kid I was always into doing hair, and my parents got me dolls and the like to practice on, but they never really thought much of it… they just reassured me that no matter what I wanted in life, they had enough money to make it happen. But I didn’t want that, I wanted to work on my own and earn my rewards. So I opened up my salon when I was eighteen,” he explains.

“That’s so fuckin’ cool! It’s like a big ‘fuck you, I can make my own money’ to them!” Olivia compliments. “You should do my hair sometime!”

“Oh, I don’t have my supplies-” Kaisuke starts before Olivia cuts him off.

“Just ask a Monomaid!”

“Right, I can do that…” Seems like he forgot that was an option.

At that moment, I hear a scream come from the elevator. I turn to see what it is.

Osami is frantically pressing a button inside the elevator to close the doors. He looks terrified.

“Ah, shit, he’s really bothered by stuff like this, I wanted to give him a warning,” Olivia sighs.

“Isn’t everyone?” I ask, glancing at her makeup again.

“Yeah, but he’s got like a real bad fear of blood n’ gore n’ shit. It’s only fun scaring people if it doesn’t seriously mess ‘em up. Lemme wash this off and go talk to him,” she says, standing up and leaving Kaisuke and I here.

“You wanna go get some dinner?” Kaisuke suggests. I realize it’s evening already and I’m getting a little hungry.

“Sure,” I respond, standing up. We take the elevator down to the lobby and head into the banquet hall.

We sit together at an empty table and each order something from the Monomaid. I try to think of something to talk about while the Monomaid brings us our food, but nothing’s coming to mind…

“What was your talent again?” Kaisuke asks, thankfully starting the conversation for me.

“Ultimate Lucky Student,” I reply.

He nods in response. “That’s right, on the first day here you were saying you don’t remember why you have that talent,” he recalls. “It doesn’t seem so lucky to be put in a killing game, but maybe you have some sort of luck with solving the cases? You seemed to have it all figured out during the trial yesterday.” He hesitates a little bringing up the trial.

“Yeah… it just sort of came together in my head towards the end there,” I explain. I don’t know how I figured it out, but somehow I was right… and now Takeyo’s dead.

Is it my fault? Is it because I backed up Rikizou on what he was saying and explained how I thought it might’ve happened?

No, that doesn’t make sense. If she hadn’t died, then the rest of us would’ve been executed together… I helped us have the least amount of loss in the group.

“You alright?” Kaisuke interrupts my thoughts.

“Ah, yeah… just a little weird to think about the trial. I didn’t expect it to happen at all, but maybe I should’ve…” Maybe it’s time to change the subject. “Let’s not think about it for now, what kind of work do you do at your salon?” Hairstyling. He’s a hairstylist. What am I asking?

“Well, styling hair, of course… Most often it’s standard haircuts and dyes, but sometimes I’ll style hair for special occasions,” he explains. “My biggest job thus far was styling for that idol-themed J-Pop band, B.A.B.Y., when they were on tour in my area and their usual stylist cancelled last minute.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of them! That’s cool.” I recall some of their hairstyles and am immediately impressed.

“One of the twins - Fumie was her name, I remember because she insisted it wasn’t ‘Yumie’ like the band name’s acronym suggests - described her dream haircut to me. It wasn’t at all befitting of her band’s style. She didn’t seem all that happy in that band, so I hope to one day meet her again and give her that haircut.” He smiles as he recalls the memory.

“I hope so too.” I hope we can all get out of here…

When I’m finished eating, the orange Monomaid takes my plate. I part ways with Kaisuke and go back to my room.

I sit down on my bed and with nothing else to do, I take out my Monopad to poke around for a little bit. The three remaining entertainment floors are still greyed out on the map, as I figured. Does that mean Monokuma expects three more murder cases…? We’d only have four people left after that…

Not wanting to think about it, I exit out of the map application. While searching, I notice that the Monokuma File about Akitsuna’s death is still accessible. I guess there’s no reason it wouldn’t be… I still can’t believe he’s dead, after how much of the first few days I spent with him and Becca, now he’s just gone…

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

I switch off my Monopad and head to bed.


	8. Chapter 2: Day 2

I distantly hear the morning announcement, but this time I’m tired enough that I drift back off to sleep pretty quickly. I end up waking up around 9am again before getting up and leaving my room.

I tiredly make my way down to the lobby and through the dining hall into the kitchen, where I find Reichiru making waffles with the help of the orange Monomaid.

“Morning, Reichiru,” I greet.

“Good morning.” She turns to face me. “I’m making plenty of waffles, so if you’d like some you can wait in the dining hall. They’ll be ready soon.”

“Alright… you need any help?” If she’s making waffles for me, I’d like to at least offer.

“We’ve got it,” she says, gesturing to the Monomaid already assisting her.

I nod and head back out to the dining hall where I take a seat. I stare absentmindedly at the screen in the window while I wait, not having anything else to do. Shortly after, Reichiru walks back out with two plates of waffles and sets one down in front of me.

“Thanks,” I say, accepting the food.

“No problem.” She sits down next to me and pulls down her mask before starting to eat.

I start to eat, trying to think of something to talk about to fill the silence. Reichiru isn’t the most talkative person, but I feel strange just sitting here silently…

“So, you’re the Ultimate Graphic Designer, right?” I ask, recalling her talent from when I first met her.

She nods. “I mainly do logos and advertising,” she explains.

“That sounds cool,” I comment. “Have you worked for any brands I’d recognize?”

“Probably not,” she says. I guess even being an ultimate, not many huge brands would hire a teenager to design their logo… That, or she’s being modest.

The conversation falls silent again. Guess talent wasn’t the right conversation topic… I take another bite of my breakfast, thinking.

“This place is pretty awful, huh?” I say, referring to the killing game.

“I don’t mind it,” she responds. “I like the Monomaids. I like that they never run out of strawberry lollipops. I don’t like the threat of death, though I haven’t died yet.” She takes another bite of her food after finishing her statement.

Even with two people dead, she doesn’t seem to mind this place… Is she not afraid of death? Does she not have anything she misses back home?

“There is a risk of dying soon. I hope I’m not chosen to be a victim,” she comments between bites.

“Huh?” I mean… if Monokuma gets his way, there will be more deaths, but what makes her think it’ll be soon…?

“The first motive was introduced on our third day here. Tomorrow will be our third day after the first trial. Therefore, I assume the next motive will be introduced tomorrow,” she states. “I could be wrong, but that’s my assumption. Only time will tell, I guess.”

“Yeah… I hope it’s not as bad as the first one,” I say. I have no idea what other kinds of motives might be introduced, but if it’s something we’re able to ignore then we should be fine… right?

When she’s finished eating, Reichiru stands up and leaves. The Monomaid quickly takes her plate and brings it back to the kitchen. I finish up my breakfast alone before the Monomaid comes back and takes my plate, and I walk out into the lobby.

Olivia is sitting in a chair in the seating area facing towards the dining hall. Her hair is down and Kaisuke is standing behind her, braiding part of it near the top of her head.

“Hey Jinshi!” She greets, careful not to move her head while Kaisuke remains focused on her hair.

“Morning, Olivia.” I notice her makeup today is less gory than yesterday’s, but she didn’t lie about doing that kind of stuff every day… This time it’s just a bit of fake blood made to look like it’s coming out of one of her eyes.

I take a seat near the two and watch Kaisuke work. The braid wraps around the back of her head and coils around into a shape that looks like a flower. He grabs a pure white bobby pin to blend in with Olivia’s hair and tucks it in behind the flower to hold it in place.

“Done,” he says, stepping back and grabbing two fairly small mirrors off of a nearby coffee table. “Take a look.” He hands one of the mirrors to Olivia to hold in front of herself while he holds the other behind her so she can see the reflection of the back.

“Whoa, that’s so fuckin’ cool!” She grins as she looks at it. “Kaisuke, this is gorgeous!”

“Only because it’s on you,” he comments quietly, but I’m close enough to hear.

She pauses and blushes for a second. “Nah, it’s definitely because of your talent! You’re fuckin’ awesome.”

I stand up to get a better look at it. “That’s really impressive, Kaisuke,” I compliment. Even watching him towards the end, I don’t have a clue how he managed to make it look like that…

“Thank you guys. They don’t call me an ultimate for nothing,” he smiles proudly. His attitude changes a little when he addresses both of us.

I sense these two would rather spend some time alone together, so I decide to leave. “I’m gonna wander around for a little bit, see you guys later.”

“Seeya!” Olivia waves to me with her free hand.

“See you later,” Kaisuke says.

I take the elevator up to the second level and glance around the larger seating area to see if anyone’s here. Osami is sitting alone, curled up in a chair with his knees to his chest as he stares at one of the window screens again. I decide to check on him.

“Hey,” I greet, approaching slowly as to not startle him.

“O-oh, hello Jinshi.” He looks up at me before staring at the screen again.

“Do look at these screens as a distraction?” I ask, taking a seat next to him.

“Y-yeah… I-I’ve noticed, they show a loop. It’s a video… i-it repeats every hour or so,” he explains. He glances at the clock before looking back. “I-in a second, here, there’ll be a bird-” he points to a tree shown at the side of the display, and a bird flies out between the branches and off into the distance.

“Each w-window has a different v-video, a-and different ones for night- but the day and night ones, show the same views.” He continues to watch the window as he explains.

Knowing that makes it feel even more fake… but it’s probably an important piece of information. “That’s interesting…” I comment, watching the daytime video on the screen.

“Do you usually watch things to distract yourself?” I ask, assuming he’s still struggling with the whole ‘hearing dead people’ thing. How much does he normally have to deal with that…?

“S-sometimes… I-I like reading, usually…”

“Why don’t you ask the Monomaids for books?” I suggest.

“I d-don’t know what books… to ask for…” He doesn’t move his eyes from the screen as he continues to speak.

“You could ask if they have any recommendations?”

“M-maybe…” As we’re talking about it, the yellow Monomaid walks up holding a book and hands it to him. “O-oh, thank you…”

“‘Duchess of the Light’,” I read off the cover.

“I-I think my cousin t-told me about this book…” He’s no longer staring at the screen, now gazing at the cover. “I-I guess I’ll try…” He opens the book and starts reading.

He’s instantly immersed in the novel. He seems really focused, even though he just started… Not wanting to interrupt him, I stand up and leave.

I walk to the coffee shop and order a coffee from the Monomaid before sitting down alone and drinking it. Is Reichiru right about the next motive happening so soon…?

It seems she’s assuming whoever’s behind this is fairly organized in their plans. Considering the ten seats in the movie theatre, which was unlocked after two of us died, I think that’s a fair assumption. I still wish there was a way to stop this, but I don’t even know where to start…

When I’m finished my coffee, the Monomaid takes my cup and I stand up and leave. Osami is still reading in the seating area. I pass him and get on the elevator, heading back to my room for now.

I sit down on my bed. I find myself suddenly really tired… Since I have nothing else to do at the moment, I shut off the lights and lie down to take a nap.

…

I wake up feeling fairly refreshed, but hungry. I check the time to find it’s 8pm. I leave my room and take the elevator down to the lobby before walking into the banquet hall.

Chiho is alone at one of the tables, finishing up her meal. I approach her and take a seat.

“Hey,” I say as the Monomaid hands me a menu.

“Hi, Jinshi.” She still sounds tired and I don’t blame her.

I order from the Monomaid and receive my food shortly after. I start eating as the Monomaid takes Chiho’s now empty plate.

“I’m gonna go get some sleep,” she says, rolling her chair back from the table.

“Goodnight,” I say between bites as she leaves.

I eat fairly quickly and leave, heading back to my room. I take a shower and start drying off, unsure of what to do since I’m less tired after my nap.

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

Night already… I’m not nearly tired enough to sleep. I get dressed back into my normal clothes and dry my hair a little more. Then, I hear a knock on my door.

“Hello?” I ask through the door, cautious to open it. There’s no motive active right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible for someone to be planning a murder…

“Hi Jinshi, it’s Rikizou!” I can hear the smile in his voice.

I’m not sure if I want to see him right now… but I have nothing else to do, so I may as well see why he’s here. I open the door to see him holding a huge bowl of popcorn.

“Would you like to go see a movie together?” He asks with a friendly smile.

That would certainly give me something to do… “Uh, sure.”

“Great! You’re the first person who agreed! Let’s go!” He grabs my hand and pulls me along with him. I struggle to drop the towel I was using to dry my hair in my room and close the door as we leave. Maybe this was a mistake…

We take the elevator to the first entertainment floor and he leads me into the movie theatre. He walks straight to the shelf at the back and picks out a movie.

“I figured we could watch this one, in her memory.” He holds up the movie and I notice it’s the one I picked up the other day, with Takeyo on the cover. Did he see me holding it…?

“Um… alright,” I agree. It might be hard to watch, but his intentions seem to be good…

He hands me the bowl of popcorn before getting the movie set up with the projector to play. I take a seat and start snacking on the popcorn before he joins me and I set the bowl on the armrest between us.

I remember seeing this movie before, but I don’t remember a lot of details. I start remembering more as we watch. It’s a fairly stereotypical rom-com, with Takeyo playing the girl lead. Rikizou seems thoroughly invested in the story the whole time, eyes glued to the screen. Overall it’s pretty good, despite being painfully cheesy at times.

“Thank you for joining me,” Rikizou says as the credits roll.

“No problem, I wasn’t really tired and didn’t have anything to do. Plus, it’s not a bad movie.” I glance at the now empty popcorn bowl when a Monomaid runs in and takes it from us.

“I’ll see you tomorrow!” Rikizou stands up and leaves the movie theatre.

I stand up and put the movie back away before leaving as well and heading back to my room. As confusing as he is, I had a good time… and I think seeing Takeyo embracing her talent as the lead in that movie helped a little. She accomplished a lot with her talent in life, and her name will be remembered.

Back in my room, I hang up the towel that I’d left on the floor by the door when Rikizou dragged me out. Afterwards, I head to bed and fall asleep pretty quickly.


	9. Chapter 2: Day 3 + 4

Again, I distantly hear the morning announcement but sleep through it. I’m woken up again at exactly 9am by a new announcement.

_“Ahem, I’m getting bored! Why don’t we all watch a movie together? That’s not a suggestion. Get to the movie theatre by 9:15am or you’ll be punished for being late!”_

That’s… alarming. I don’t trust whatever this ‘movie’ is… but I’d rather not be punished. I get dressed and head out into the hallway, stepping onto the elevator with a few of the others before heading up to the first entertainment floor.

I take a seat in the front row next to Reichiru and wait for everyone else to arrive. At exactly 9:15am, the projector switches on and a movie begins to play.

The entire cast is made up of Monokumas. The protagonist is given a job to kill another Monokuma and is rewarded with a large amount of Monocoins, the currency I recognize from the arcade. The protagonist Monokuma completes his job and is rewarded the money before the movie ends. It’s pretty short.

The projector switches off and the blue Monomaid rushes around the room handing us each an envelope. I turn over mine in my hands. It says ‘PLEASE OPEN!’ in big letters on the back. I hesitantly open the envelope.

_Your target is Chiho Isayama._

Huh…?

Just as I’m about to question what this means, the projector switches back on to show Monokuma sitting in his chair.

_“Good morning! Hope you enjoyed the movie! If you didn’t, I don’t care! Anyhow, this is your next motive! The envelopes you’ve just been handed contain the name of your target! If you successfully kill that person and get away with it, alongside checking out of the Ichizo Hotel, you’ll receive one million dollars! You can still kill anyone you like to be able to check out, but you’ll only get the money reward if you kill your own target! Upupupu, happy killing!”_

The screen switches back off and I sit there in shock. This motive is… money? Who would kill for that? And my target… Chiho. She was worried about being an easy target, but if I’m the one who has her name, she should be safe for now. I’m not killing anyone, especially not just for money…

“Hey, Jinshi,” Rikizou places his hand on my shoulder. “Guess who my target is!”

“I don’t really care,” I tell him, tucking my envelope into my pocket.

“It’s you! I could kill you any time now, you know! One million dollars, that’s a lot of money… I wonder what I could do with that much!” He smiles as he speaks before turning and leaving the movie theatre. He’s probably just messing with me… but I’m still worried. In any case, I should watch my back…

I stand up and look around the movie theatre. Everyone else has left except Becca. That’s right, I haven’t even seen her since just after the first trial… I approach her.

“Hey, Becca. Are you doing alright?” I always ask these things, knowing the answer is likely no.

“I’m… gonna figure it out.” She seems completely out of it…

“Have you slept?”

“No,” she gazes at me blankly.

“Like, not at all, or just not last night?” How sleep deprived is she…?

“Not since the trial! I’ve got important stuff to do… need to figure out…” It looks like she’s dozing off.

“Hey, let’s get you back to your room… you need to sleep,” I say.

“I can’t sleep! We need to figure out who the aliens are!” She stands up and grabs my arm. “I think there might be more than one disguising themselves in our group.”

“Really…” If only Akitsuna were here… he’d probably know exactly how to handle this.

“Yeah! Though, I don’t think it’s my target…” She looks down at her paper before showing it to me. Her target is Reichiru…

“Alright…” I’m not sure what that has to do with anything, but it might be helpful to know. Suddenly, I think of something.

“Look, you need to sleep. You need energy to find out who the aliens are, right? I can watch out for you, and you can trust me.” I show her my note saying that my target is Chiho.

She nods. “I don’t think Chiho is an alien either… I think…” She trails off and her eyelids start to close.

“Let’s go before you fall asleep here and break a rule.” I drag her out of the movie theatre and bring her to her room on the first guest floor.

“I don’t think this is a good idea… I need to be awake, what if the aliens…” She crashes on her bed mid-sentence and immediately falls asleep.

I take a seat on the other side of her bed. I do my best to not disturb her as this nap is long overdue. I take out my Monopad and click through everything I can see again, despite knowing everything that’s on there. It helps cure my boredom a little bit.

I put my Monopad back away and take the note out of my pocket. There’s nothing on it besides the single sentence about my target. Is money really enough to motivate someone to kill someone else in here…? I guess I don’t really know everyone’s living situation… Someone could really need it.

I think about what Becca and Akitsuna told me about how they met. They were living in an orphanage and planning to move out… They seemed somewhat worried about money, but the video footage of their friend Rei’s death and the subsequent death of Akitsuna has probably deterred Becca from those plans enough that I don’t have to worry about her killing someone. Unless it’s self defense, like Takeyo… in that case, anyone could kill, really. It’s… terrifying.

After a while, Becca wakes up. She slowly pushes herself up and turns around to see me.

“Hmm… Jinshi? Why are you… right, you were gonna help me figure out who the aliens are!” She hops up to a sitting position, already full of energy.

“That’s not-” I start, but she interrupts me.

“There’s one thing I find _really_ suspicious,” she begins, talking quickly. “Aliens have the ability to disguise themselves as humans, of course, since that’s how they replace us. Well, ever since the first trial, I’ve noticed someone using those disguise abilities to create wounds that look real.”

Is she talking about… “You mean Olivia’s makeup?”

“Makeup? No! It’s her alien powers,” she states as if it were obvious. “I think she’s using the title ‘Ultimate SFX Makeup Artist’ as a cover-up. She’s definitely the alien Mastermind behind all this.”

“Becca, I don’t think that’s-”

“Ooh, you’re right! We can’t let her know we’re onto her-” Her voice drops to a whisper. “She might be watching right now.” She continues, speaking louder than usual. “She’s not an alien at all! She’s just a normal human ultimate student like us!” She grins and nods at me.

That’s… not what I meant, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do.

“Oh, hey-” She gets up from her bed and grabs something from inside her dresser. “Take a look at this.” She hands me a notebook.

I open it up and the first thing I see is scribbles. No, this is writing… It's incomprehensible chicken scratch.

“Interesting, right? Oh, look here-” She grabs it from me and flips to an equally unreadable page.

“This is how I knew Aki and Rei weren’t aliens! I mean, I guess I can’t be 100% sure that you’re not an alien, but… Aki told me to trust you.” Her expression changes as she mentions her two friends. I can tell she misses them a lot but is trying to hide it. I don’t have the heart to tell her that I can’t read anything written in this notebook.

“That’s interesting…” I say, pretending to read it. “Hey, why don’t we go to the arcade to distract ourselves from the motive- and aliens, or whatever?” I close the notebook and hand it back to her.

“Yeah, okay!” She stands up and puts the notebook away. We leave her room and take the elevator to the first entertainment floor.

We enter the arcade and she races around the room to look at all the games, somehow full of energy despite having a total of three hours of sleep over the past three days, all of which were during a nap this morning. She locates an alien-themed multiplayer game and drags me over to it.

“We should play this! It’s probably pretty inaccurate, but it might have some hints about the aliens behind this thing!”

“Alright,” I agree, deciding to ignore her comment about aliens for now.

It turns out to be a pretty simple shooter game where we have to kill the enemies, in this case, aliens invading earth. Since I’m not very familiar with these types of games, Becca wins by a landslide.

“Haha! Take that, aliens!” She has a huge grin on her face as the ‘You Win!’ screen is displayed.

“Hey,” I hear a familiar voice from nearby and turn to see Hatsumi approaching us. “Wanna play with us? There’s a 4-player co-op game over here, we could use your help.”

I notice Toka standing next to the game she’s referring to, and he gives us a little wave.

“Sure,” I agree before glancing at Becca.

“Okay!” She agrees as well before leaning in close to me and whispering. “I’m not sure about these two. We’ll have to look out for any suspicious activity.” Afterwards, she energetically follows Hatsumi over to the game. I sigh and follow as well.

The four of us spend the afternoon together playing all the games that allow up to four players. In the evening, Toka leaves to get dinner first while Hatsumi, Becca, and I stay behind and play a couple more three-player games. Finally, when it’s almost 7pm, the three of us leave the arcade and head to the banquet hall.

When we enter, I see Toka sitting with Rikizou and Kaisuke. Or, Kaisuke was with them, but he seems to have just finished his food and leaves shortly after we arrive. Rikizou seems to be bothering Toka about something, but he looks to be handling it well so I leave them be and sit with Becca and Hatsumi.

As I start to eat, my mind wanders back to the motive. Should I start a conversation about it…? I don’t think Hatsumi would kill for this motive, but I can’t help but wonder who her target might be.

“I don’t like this place, but the free food’s nice,” Hatsumi comments, interrupting my thoughts.

“Yeah,” I agree. “I don’t think it’s worth the threat of murder, but I wouldn’t kill just to leave. Or to get money…”

“Me neither,” Hatsumi says between bites. “This place isn’t so bad, and if I do get out somehow besides killing, I don’t really need the money. Not to brag, but I’ve got enough back home from winning gaming events.”

Back home… should I ask her about that? “Hatsumi, didn’t you mention having a brother back home?” 

“Yeah, Shōhei. He’s a dancer. An ultimate, too, actually,” she explains. “I miss him, but I’m not gonna kill over it. I just don’t think I’d be able to bring myself to do something like that, even in self defense I’d rather find a way out of it.”

“I feel the same…” I think I can trust her.

I realize we’ve been talking about family while Becca’s sitting right here. Didn’t she say she lost her entire family…? I look over at her to see she’s completely zoned out. Maybe the lack of sleep is finally catching up to her again…

“Becca…?” Hatsumi seems concerned. I assume she doesn’t know about Becca’s lack of sleep, so I understand her worry.

“Huh? Oh, hi!” Becca blinks a couple times before turning to me. “Maybe you’re right, I could use some sleep.” She giggles a little before going back to her meal.

I sigh and shake my head before going back to eating. I finish around the same time as Becca and the Monomaid comes to collect our plates.

“See you guys tomorrow,” Hatsumi says as we both stand up while she continues to eat.

“Seeya!” Becca is somehow tired and energetic at the same time.

“Night,” I say before leaving with Becca.

I make sure Becca makes it safely back to her room before she risks punishment and then I head back to my own. I perform my nightly routine of showering, drying off, and heading to bed in time with the nighttime announcement.

…

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I’m not as tired as I usually have been in the mornings so I get up shortly after the announcement. I get dressed and leave my room, ready to head to the kitchen for some breakfast.

When I step off the elevator into the lobby, something feels off. I suddenly remember the motive yesterday… There’s no way someone actually killed already, right?

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _stabbing in the chest_

I cautiously glance around the seating area, fully ready to brush it off as anxiety due to the whole situation we’re in, when I see it.

Blood, on the floor, coming from the luggage room. As much as I don’t want to, I step towards it and peek inside. Lying there on the floor, right next to the entrance…

Hatsumi Asano, the Ultimate ESports Competitor, is dead.

I immediately step back out and into the lobby, looking away from it and taking deep breaths, hoping not to pass out this time. I start to panic, unsure of what to do or where to go, until my legs start running on their own into the dining hall.

Reichiru, Toka, and Kaisuke are sitting together eating when I enter. I stop in my tracks and they stare at me.

“What’s wrong?” Toka asks, noticing my panicked expression.

“H… Hatsumi…” I stare him dead in the eyes and point behind myself towards the luggage room. The three of them stand up and rush past me.

_ding dong dong ding “A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the trial will begin!"_

This time, I see Monokuma on the screen in the window of the dining hall. Directly after the announcement, the light shining into the room turns blood pink, just as it was during the last investigation.

I really don’t want to look at the body again… I take out my Monopad to look at the Monokuma File, just to avoid it a little longer.

_Monokuma File 02_   
_Victim: Hatsumi Asano_   
_Time of death: 9:52pm_   
_Cause of death: stabbing_

That would explain the amount of blood… And it happened last night, after I’d left the banquet hall. That means I don’t have an alibi. Dammit…

I reluctantly go back into the lobby. Maybe I can investigate somewhere else and avoid the body… but I have no idea where clues might be.

“Good morning, Jinshi!” Rikizou approaches me and greets me with a smile. “Did you hear the announcement? Another murder took place.”

“I was the first one to find the body,” I tell him, frowning.

“Oh! So you’ve already seen her.” He turns around to see the group of people that were in the dining hall now crowding inside the luggage room. “I suppose she’s over there?”

He walks into the luggage room and I reluctantly follow. After seeing some of Olivia’s gory makeup these past few days, I’m a little desensitized, but it still bothers me knowing those are _real_ stab wounds that _killed her._

I manage to bring myself close to her when the others have finished investigating the area around her corpse. It’s awful to see her like this… Just last night at dinner she was so full of life, hoping to eventually get back home to her brother, but just shortly after, she was killed.

I can’t look at the stab wounds for very long, but the main thing I notice is the quantity--there are several of them. They’re all across her chest. I notice one of her pigtails is over her shoulder and fell over one of the stab wounds… Looking closely, I notice that some of the hair is shorter than the rest, very clearly cut. I guess the killer accidentally took off some hair when they were stabbing…

I stand back up and step away from the corpse. I can’t say I’m a fan of dead bodies, but unfortunately, I think I’m starting to get used to them. At least enough to investigate and help towards the effort of not getting the rest of us killed.

After backing away, I notice something on the ground next to Hatsumi’s body. It’s a relatively small dagger… There’s a lot of blood on it.

“Looks like the killer took after Takeyo with their placement of the murder weapon,” Rikizou says, also looking at the dagger. “I suppose if the body is meant to be found, leaving the weapon where it is is better than hiding it somewhere that would lead back to you.”

I decide not to respond to him and step out of the luggage room. Despite still being inside the building, it feels like I’m taking a breath of fresh air when I’m back in the lobby.

I take a seat in the seating area. I can’t think of anywhere to look for evidence… Should I talk to people? See who has an alibi? We’ll talk about that during the trial, anyways…

I try to recall whose targets I knew from the motive yesterday. Mine was Chiho, Becca’s was Reichiru, and Rikizou’s was supposedly me… I think that’s all I know. I wish I’d asked for everyone’s targets earlier, because whoever had Hatsumi definitely wouldn’t admit it now… especially if they’re the killer.

_"Erm, so ah... I'm getting tired of waiting. What say we just get started, hm? It's time for the long-awaited trial! Now then, please take the elevator to the roof! Puhuhu. See you soon!"_

Already…? I didn’t even look anywhere else… I guess I was just sitting there trying to think of places rather than actually looking around. I hope other people have found more crucial evidence, because at this point, it could be almost anyone.

I step onto the elevator when it opens up in the lobby, joined by Becca and Chiho, who had just been investigating in the luggage room. The elevator ascends, picking up everyone else on other floors before stopping on the roof.


	10. Chapter 2: Trial

The elevator opens up to the trial room on the roof. The podiums are the same as last time, but the display has changed. This time it’s as if the hotel were in the middle of a small island, beach surrounding us and water stretching into the horizon. Similar to the first trial, though, the sky appears dark like the night despite it still being early in the day.

I step up to my podium and glance at the picture frames now on stands in place of Takeyo and Hatsumi, just like the one of Akitsuna that we saw last time. It’s still hard to believe that all of this is true… It doesn’t feel right that I’m starting to get used to this. We need to find a way out without anyone else dying… but for now, our only choice is to let at least one more person die. We need to find the culprit who killed Hatsumi…

Monokuma speaks up once we’re all at our podiums. “You all remember how this goes, right? Your votes determine the results. Figure out ‘whodunnit,’ or you’ll all be punished and the blackened will check out! Now, get discussing the evidence, and I’ll let you know when it’s time to vote!”

It’s silent for a moment and I decide to speak first. “Where should we start?”

“Perhaps the murder weapon,” Reichiru responds.

“Ooh, I know!” Becca chimes in. “There was a knife in the kitchen sink!”

“What?” Kaisuke looks at her, confused. I didn’t find that either…

“It was just sitting there in the sink! It was wet, too. The killer obviously used it to stab Hatsumi and then washed it off and left it there,” she explains.

“Why would they just leave it in the sink?” Olivia asks. “Wouldn’t they put it away? Plus, if Hatsumi died last night, wouldn’t the knife be mostly dry by now just from sitting in the sink?”

“Maybe… they didn’t wash it ‘til this morning, to make us think it was unrelated,” Becca considers.

“I-I’m sorry, Becca, b-but I don’t think that’s right…” Osami speaks up.

“Why?” Becca looks at Osami and tilts her head.

“Th-there was a dagger, n-next to Hatsumi’s… next to the body,” Osami explains.

“Right, that. I think the killer used the knife and put some blood on a dagger there to confuse us!” Becca exclaims.

“Why would they do that?” Chiho asks. “Couldn’t anyone ask a Monomaid for the dagger? There’s no point in hiding the murder weapon if it doesn’t point towards the killer.”

Toka nods in agreement. “Plus, the stab wounds were too thin to be a kitchen knife. The dagger there was pretty small, so it was definitely the murder weapon,” he adds.

“Interesting! I wonder how you know so much about murder…” Rikizou gives a clearly false smile towards Toka. What is he implying…?

Toka ignores Rikizou’s remark and continues. “Besides, Reichiru used a knife this morning to slice some cheese for our breakfast sandwiches. The Monomaid must’ve left it in the sink.” Reichiru nods to confirm Toka’s statement.

“Alright, I guess I was wrong…” Becca admits defeat. “But if we know the murder weapon, and that doesn’t lower it down, then how do we figure out who it was?”

“We could discuss alibis for the time of death,” Rikizou suggests. “I’m afraid I don’t have one, so you’re all free to suspect me, though I wouldn’t have a use for the money reward.” Didn’t he say I was his target, anyways?

“A bunch of us went to watch a movie in the theatre,” Olivia states. “It was me, Kaisuke, Osami, Chiho, and Reichiru.” The others nod to confirm her statement.

“I don’t have an alibi, but I can back theirs up too,” Toka mentions. “Kaisuke left dinner early because he was meeting up with you.”

“I guess I don’t have an alibi either, since I was back in my room by then…” Becca bites her lip.

“That leaves four of us without alibis,” I comment. “Maybe we can discuss the motive next.”

“Good idea! Remember, Jinshi? My target was you,” Rikizou smiles at me from across the circle.

“Yeah, I remember you saying that…” I sigh.

“Oh! I also know Toka’s target,” he states. “It was me!”

“He’s right,” Toka confirms. “Rikizou was my target.”

“T-Toka… you were m-my target…” Osami says.

“Mine was Reichiru, but I didn’t really think much about the motive,” Becca comments.

“My target was Chiho,” I state.

“Intriguing! Of course, I’d assume you’d lie about something like that,” Rikizou remarks.

“Lie…?” What is he talking about?

“I know what he’s referring to,” Kaisuke cuts in. “I found it in your room, the motive note. It said your target was Hatsumi.”

“That’s not-” I start to panic. How would someone else’s motive note get in _my_ room?

“No alibi, target was the victim… you’ll need some good evidence to prove your innocence,” Rikizou says.

“No, he’s telling the truth!” Becca interjects. “I remember… I was tired, but I remember clearly! He showed me his note right after the motive started!”

“Yeah, we each showed each other our motive notes,” I explain. “I can confirm she’s telling the truth about hers, too.”

“Is that so? I think you could’ve stolen someone else’s note by that point and shown it to Becca as if it were your own. Besides, Becca was exhausted, she wouldn’t have noticed if you’d snagged someone else’s before talking to her,” Rikizou accuses.

“No, they were just talking to each other at dinner, Jinshi wouldn’t kill Hatsumi!” Becca claims. “Plus, he walked me back to my room! It was late, I don’t think he would’ve had time to go get a dagger _and_ go kill Hatsumi…”

“‘I don’t think’ isn’t a very strong excuse,” Kaisuke comments.

“I know… but I’m right! I know I am!” Becca continues to defend me.

“Just like how you know the government is run by aliens?” Rikizou asks in a mocking tone.

“Leave her alone,” I cut in before this can go any further. I may not believe her theories, but that comment was uncalled for… and we need to focus on the trial. “Does anyone else want to share who their target was?”

The room falls silent. Why…? Only whoever had Hatsumi as a target should be afraid of sharing. At this point, it doesn’t matter who your target was… the motive is over.

“I didn’t open my envelope,” Chiho states. We all look at her and no one speaks.

“I… didn’t know what it was about, so I waited for an explanation. When Monokuma said it was a target to kill for money, I decided I didn’t need to read it… I don’t want to kill someone, and even though I know I wouldn’t do it, I didn’t want to be thinking about it all day. There wasn’t a point for me to read it,” she explains.

Is it possible that her target was Hatsumi…? If she’s the one that died, we’d all assume that the person who had her as a target was the killer, but that might not be true…

“Is there anyone else that didn’t read their note?” I ask.

“Hatsumi said she didn’t read hers,” Toka mentions.

I wonder… “Monokuma, is it possible for someone to have their own name as a target?”

“Nope! You all got the name of another guest in your motive notes! If the motive told you to kill yourself, how would you get the reward?” Monokuma answers.

Then Hatsumi couldn’t have had her own name… I feel like this is getting us nowhere.

“So, Jinshi, are you ready to admit that your target was Hatsumi and you’re the killer?” Rikizou asks. “What are your plans with the prize money, anyways?”

“I’m not the killer,” I state firmly. “Was there any other evidence? Anything else that seemed out of place this morning…?” There has to be something… if only I’d tried to search more…

“Right, evidence! Did anyone find something else?” Rikizou speaks as if he has a piece of evidence in mind. He’s accusing me so strongly I’m worried it’s something else that points to me. I wish he’d just get to the point…

“Hair,” Reichiru comments.

“Hair…?” Olivia questions.

“Hair. Black hair, a small section, a few inches long. Wavy. There was some blood on it,” she explains. “I found it in the trash can in Kaisuke’s room.”

“My room…?” Kaisuke looks shocked.

“How did it get in your room?” Chiho asks. “I noticed… on her body, some of the hair in the pigtail over her shoulder was cut off, probably during the stabbing… how did it get in your trash can?”

“He’s a hairstylist,” Olivia cuts in. “Don’t rule out the chance he cut someone’s hair another time. We’ve been here a while.”

“Do you normally cut hair that bleeds?” Reichiru asks.

“N-no, I didn’t cut her hair… someone must’ve put it in my trash to frame me,” Kaisuke defends.

“I noticed something else about the hair, too,” Rikizou chimes in. “It seems the blood caused it to stick to your sweater, because there were some tiny purple clothing fibres stuck in the blood.”

“Wait, I’m not the only one here who wears purple! Jinshi’s the one with the note in his room, look at his jacket!” Kaisuke points at me.

I look down at my very purple blazer. The material is notably different from Kaisuke’s sweater…

“The fibres of his blazer wouldn’t come off as easily as your knit sweater,” Reichiru shuts his point down.

“Why are you accusing me? I have an alibi!” Kaisuke sighs in frustration.

“A-actually…” Osami speaks up fearfully.

“I was in the movie theatre at her time of death!” Kaisuke continues, interrupting Osami before he can continue.

“What is it, Osami?” I need to hear what he has to say.

“I-it’s just that… Kaisuke, y-you left during th-the movie…” Osami looks down and avoids eye contact with anyone. “Y-you said you had to use the restroom… you were gone for a w-while… I d-don’t know what time it was, but…”

“Osami is right. I remember that. It leaves a gap in your alibi,” Reichiru states. Kaisuke is speechless.

“Kaisuke, who was your target?” Toka asks.

“That… that doesn’t matter! The motive didn’t apply to me anyways!” Kaisuke starts to raise his voice.

The discussion falls silent for a moment before Olivia speaks up. “He’s not the killer… it was me!”

“Oh?” Rikizou turns to face Olivia.

“I did it, okay? Hatsumi was my target. I wanted to get the fuck outta this shithole. I don’t know where the fuck we are anyways, I could use the money to get back home, buy some shit, donate some, who cares. I killed her,” Olivia claims.

“You have an alibi,” Reichiru states.

“No, I’m the killer! I swear to fuck-”

“Olivia,” Toka interrupts, “You showed me your motive note yesterday morning. It was Osami. I remember you calling the motive fuckin’ stupid for suggesting you kill your friend.”

“Shut the fuck up, I did it!” Olivia is starting to tear up.

“So, do you know why Kaisuke did it then?” Rikizou asks her.

“He didn’t-” Her voice breaks off as she tries to hold back tears.

“Stop,” Kaisuke interrupts her. We all look at him, but he doesn’t say another word.

“Ready to admit it for yourself?” Rikizou smirks at Kaisuke, who remains silent.

I look between Olivia and Kaisuke, glance at the podium where Hatsumi’s crossed out portrait stands, and start to figure out how it might’ve happened.

“I think… we should look at this case from start to finish.” Everyone looks at me. I’m nervous, but like last time, this feels right.

“It all started yesterday, when the most recent motive was introduced. The culprit received a note saying that Hatsumi Asano was their target. When Monokuma revealed the reward for killing your target, the culprit began to plan their crime.  
At some point during the day, the culprit asked one of the Monomaids for a small dagger that was used as the murder weapon. They then waited until dinner and left the banquet hall when they saw their target enter. They went to the movie theatre to secure their alibi before coming back down to the first floor and hiding in the luggage room.  
Shortly before nighttime, when Hatsumi was leaving the banquet hall on her own, the culprit pulled her into the luggage room and stabbed her several times in the chest with the dagger. They accidentally cut off some of her hair over the front of her shoulder, and the blood caused it to stick to their sweater. They left the murder weapon at the scene of the crime.  
The killer retreated to their room, where they noticed the hair on their sweater and hastily discarded it in their own trash. They then rejoined the group in the movie theatre, disguising their crime as a bathroom break.  
It probably wasn’t until the next morning that the culprit planted their own motive note in my room to claim that I was the one who had Hatsumi as my target. This was found by others during the investigation.  
The killer, the one who stabbed Hatsumi in the luggage room, has to be… Kaisuke Terada, the Ultimate Hairstylist.”

“Well done, Jinshi! I think you might be correct,” Rikizou comments, giving a light applause.

“Kaisuke…” Olivia is visibly upset.

“Looks like you’re ready to vote! Puhuhu! Now then, use the lever in front of you to make your selection! Who will be chosen as the blackened?” Monokuma informs us that it’s time for the trial to end.

I don’t want Kaisuke to die… I don’t want anyone else to die. But there’s nothing I can do. I select Kaisuke as my vote.

Once everyone’s votes are in, the slot machine appears on the screen display. All three slots land on Kaisuke’s portrait.

“Two in a row! Congratulations, you got it right! Though this one wasn’t as unanimous as the last, good thing the majority figured it out! The blackened in this case, the one who killed Hatsumi Asano, is none other than Kaisuke Terada!”

Wasn’t as unanimous… Did someone vote wrong? I glance between Olivia and Kaisuke. Probably one or both of them…

“So, we’re all _dying_ to know, why did you do it? What were your plans with all that prize money?” Rikizou asks.

Kaisuke glares at him before reluctantly answering. “My salon… my hair salon, back home. I wanted to prove to my family that I could do it on my own, that I didn’t need their money, but I was wrong. I couldn’t go back and ask them for money or I’d never hear the end of it… I couldn’t admit defeat like that. I needed the money to keep that place running. It’s my whole life, I couldn’t let it close down… even if I got out of here another way, there’s no way I’d be able to make up for this missed time. I know it’s selfish, and stupid, and Hatsumi didn’t deserve to die like that… but I was desperate,” he explains.

Olivia steps down from her podium and rushes over to Kaisuke, hugging him. I notice she’s crying now more than before, and the fake blood on her face is starting to fall with the tears.

“Now then! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Kaisuke Terada, the Ultimate Hairstylist!”

“N-no,” Olivia speaks through silent sobs, holding onto Kaisuke tight.

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s… PUNISHMENT TIIIME!!” A bright red button appears in front of Monokuma, and he swings a gavol down to hit it.

The white Monomaid, stronger than it looks, pulls Kaisuke out of Olivia’s grasp and drags him off to his execution. Just like last time, the dome screen displays his punishment.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _decapitation, being restrained by chains_

_THE ULTIMATE HAIRSTYLIST’S FINAL HAIRCUT_

_Kaisuke is pulled into a chair inside a hair salon, and chains immediately wrap around his body, holding him in place. He struggles against them to no avail as Monokuma hops up onto a stool behind him, holding a giant pair of scissors._

_Monokuma brings the scissors to his head, wildly snipping at Kaisuke’s hair. Chunks of his hair fly everywhere and the blades of the scissors slice up around his face and neck. Monokuma’s movements become sloppier and the blades slice through the shoulders of his clothes, cutting deep into his skin. Blood pours from his wounds as he’s forced to stay there, still struggling against the chains._

_Eventually, Kaisuke manages to break free from the chains and dashes out of the chair towards the exit. He’s stopped in his tracks when Monokuma brings the giant scissors over his shoulders and cuts right through his neck. His now headless body spurts blood from the neck and collapses to the floor, while his head falls and rolls away._

_Kaisuke’s head rolls across the salon floor, leaving a trail of blood before coming to a stop upright on his neck. His eyes are closed in a peaceful expression and despite all the blood and cuts around his head, his hair looks gorgeous._

_Kaisuke Terada, the Ultimate Hairstylist, is dead._

Olivia is crouched down to the floor, refusing to watch the execution as she silently sobs.

It’s awful… This whole place is awful. My thoughts are incoherent besides a very clear ‘I want to leave’, so I step onto the elevator with the others.

Osami approaches Olivia and convinces her to take the elevator down with us before we leave.


	11. Chapter 2: Post-Trial

The elevator comes to a stop on the second floor. No one’s going to their rooms yet. Most of us disperse amongst the large seating area in small groups. Osami seems to be doing his best to comfort Olivia, Chiho and Reichiru are sitting together, Becca is sitting alone, and Rikizou and Toka are talking about something.

I’m sitting alone near Rikizou and Toka when I overhear their conversation.

“I’m surprised you didn’t go for that motive, Toka!” I can hear the smile in Rikizou’s voice. What is he up to…?

“Why would I?” I’m still not looking at them, but I can sense that Toka’s glaring at him.

“Well, aren’t you used to that sort of thing? Considering your talent, I mean. Wouldn’t it be a nice reminder of home?” He’s speaking loud enough that everyone in the room can hear.

I finally turn and watch their conversation. Is Rikizou implying that he knows Toka’s talent?

“Oh, that’s right--you were lying about not remembering your talent, weren’t you? Sorry for blowing your cover, I think everyone heard that…” Rikzou clearly fakes remorse.

“What…?” Chiho is the first besides Rikizou and Toka to speak since we arrived on this floor.

“Now they’re curious, my bad! I guess you should probably tell the truth now, or I could do it for you!” Rikizou suggests, putting on a friendly act.

Toka glares at him, speechless.

“Come on, aren’t you gonna tell them why a motive where you’re given a target to kill for a sum of money could relate to your talent?” Rikizou prompts.

Toka sighs in frustration, giving up. “…I’m the Ultimate Hitman.”

Now everyone’s looking at him. Is that really true…?

“H-hitman…?” Osami questions, looking afraid.

“Can’t you see why I didn’t want to tell anyone that? Especially in a place like this, with a killing game going on. Everyone will assume that if I’ve killed before, I’d have no problem with killing again in here. But that’s not true,” Toka explains.

“Isn’t that interesting? And he left his introduction note which clearly stated his talent in his room where I could easily find it!” Rikizou exclaims.

Toka leaves without another word and gets on the elevator. The room falls silent.

Ultimate Hitman… I guess he’s right, if there’s someone who’s killed before in a killing game then we’ll suspect them when a murder happens. But I think we can trust Toka… Especially with Rikizou’s point about this last motive. If Toka didn’t kill for the closest thing he’d get in here to one of his jobs back home, then I don’t think he’ll kill at all. It’s a little unnerving that he’s killed before, though…

After a while longer of sitting in the seating area in silence, I go back to my room alone. I order some food from the Monomaid via room service and eat alone before going to bed around the time of the nighttime announcement.

…

“So the secret’s come out…” The Mastermind speaks to their plush Monokuma in the basement of the hotel.

“I wonder how long until they figure out that more than one person here already has blood on their hands.”


	12. Chapter 3: Day 1

As is basically my routine by this point, I sleep in for about an hour after the morning announcement and get up around 9am. Before leaving my room, I think of something and check my Monopad.

“So it is…” The map now clearly shows the second entertainment floor. Like the first one, it’s divided into two large rooms, this time a dressing room and a library. I make a plan to check them out after breakfast and leave my room.

When I make it to the dining hall, I see Toka and Reichiru eating together with a huge stack of pancakes on a plate in the center of the table.

“Morning, Jinshi,” Toka greets.

“The Monomaid made pancakes,” Reichiru says.

“Oh, cool,” I comment before sitting down and grabbing some pancakes for myself.

It’s silent for a moment. My mind wanders to how eventful our time here has been. In just a week, I’ve witnessed four deaths… I would assume that’s more than I’ve ever witnessed before, but the gaps in my memory of the past few years make me uncertain. I definitely haven’t witnessed death this up-close, though…

“Do you think this game has an end?” Reichiru breaks the silence.

“...Huh?” An end… I hadn’t even thought of that. I kind of assumed it’d stop at some point…

“I guess the default end would be when there’s not enough people left to hold a trial,” Toka says.

“That many deaths…” I mutter, counting how many people we have left. There’s eight of us now. How many more have to die…?

“We shouldn’t just wait around for more people to die, though,” Toka states. “We need to do something.”

“Take action against whoever’s responsible for this?” Reichiru asks.

“Exactly. We can’t hurt them through Monokuma, that’d risk breaking Rule 5 and getting someone killed. We need to find some other way to stop this game from continuing.” He punctuates his statement with a bite of his food.

“That’s smart. I don’t know if there’s a way to do that, though,” Reichiru comments. “Whoever’s behind this has power over us. They were somehow able to get us all here and convince us to kill each other. They’ve been successful in that twice, now. We’re up against someone who knows what they’re doing, and _we_ don’t know what _we’re_ doing.”

“Well… how are we supposed to fight them if we don’t know who they are?” I ask, trying to help out.

“Unless their goal is to be found out, it’s gonna be hard to know who they are,” Toka states. “There is something I’ve considered…”

“What is it?” Does he know something about whoever’s behind this?

“What if this person behind the killing game, controlling Monokuma--the Mastermind, per say--is one of us?” Toka pauses for a moment. “I sound like Rikizou, don’t I? I’m not trying to stir up suspicion. Just saying it’s something I thought of.”

“No, I think you’re right,” Reichiru says. We both look at her expectantly. “The room in the basement. The one that’s cut off of the map, with the door that says ‘Do Not Open’. I think it could be related to this ‘Mastermind’.”

“Jinshi, didn’t we see a replacement Monomaid come outta there back when we got here?” Toka looks at me, recalling the event.

“Yeah… on the second day here, Olivia tried to get to the door, but the Monomaid blocking it exploded. Then a new one came out.” I remember…

“That suggests that I’m correct,” Reichiru states. “If a Monomaid exited that room, then it must have something to do with whoever’s behind this. Why would they have a room in the hotel if they weren’t here? Even if not as a guest, I suspect that they’re staying here. Maybe waiting for the end of this, like Toka said, when there’s not enough people left alive for a trial.”

“They could be watching us right now,” Toka suggests, glancing at the surveillance camera in the corner of the dining hall. “That’ll make it hard to find a way in there.”

“Do you think there’s anything we can do in an area of the hotel that is less likely to get us killed?” I’m still worried about going anywhere near that room… Monokuma has proved by this point that he has power over our lives.

“We’ll need to have a plan that doesn’t involve breaking any rules. And we’ll need to talk to the others, if we all work together our chances are better… I think we can find a way,” Toka says.

I nod and go back to my breakfast. Is there really a way to escape this place without killing anyone? Are we gonna be able to do something before someone else dies…? Maybe I should talk to the others about this, too.

When Reichiru finishes her pancakes, she leaves without a word and the orange Monomaid dashes in and takes her empty plate.

The room is silent once again. My mind wanders to Toka’s talent… Should I ask him about it?

“You see the new floor yet?” Toka asks, interrupting my thoughts as he takes out his Monopad.

“Ah, I haven’t checked it out, but I saw it on the map.” Maybe I’ll ask him about his talent later.

“Wanna check it out after breakfast?” Toka suggests.

“Sure,” I nod, continuing to eat.

Shortly after, we’re both finished and we hand our plates off to the orange Monomaid before taking the elevator to the second entertainment floor. We’re greeted by yet another new Monomaid, this one half indigo. This must be the one for this floor…

Besides the Monomaid, we’re greeted by someone else in the hallway. “Hello, Jinshi. I see you’re looking around with the killer?”

“Morning, Rikizou,” Toka greets with a sarcastic tone.

“Morning, Toka! Don’t be fooled, I don’t think you’ll kill anyone in this killing game. I just wouldn’t be surprised if other people assumed that about you, considering your talent.” Rikizou walks past us and onto the elevator as he speaks. “I’ll see you two later then.” The doors close behind him.

“Can’t stand that guy…” Toka mutters his complaint.

“Yeah… Which one do you wanna check out first?” I change the topic back to the task at hand.

“Let’s take a look at the library,” Toka says, walking forwards. I follow him into the library.

The library has an old classic feel with huge dark brown wooden bookcases lining the walls. The window screens displaying the outdoor scenes can only barely be seen between them. The shelves are filled with various novels targeted towards teen and young adult audiences, both fiction and non-fiction of various genres. There’s a seating area in the center of the room with several couches and chairs surrounding coffee tables matching the bookcases in colour, and end tables at the sides of the couches containing lamps to use as reading light.

Osami is already here, sitting alone on one of the couches with his legs up and book close to his face. He looks really invested so I decide to avoid bothering him as I look around.

“Reading isn’t really my thing,” I comment to Toka quietly where we stand across the library from Osami.

“I like it sometimes. I’ll probably come back here later and see if I can find anything good,” he responds before heading for the door. I follow him out.

We continue across the hall into the dressing room. Chiho, Reichiru, and Becca are already inside looking around.

At one side of the room, there are several vanities in a line against a wall, white in colour with matching seats. Across from them, there’s a couple clothing racks. Against another wall, there’s large cupboards full of various supplies. I approach them first to see what’s inside.

There’s various hair products, dyes, cutting and styling materials… Were these supposed to be for Kaisuke?

“This tells us the Mastermind doesn’t have complete control over us,” Toka comments. “If they left hair styling stuff here, they probably didn’t know Kaisuke would be gone by this point.”

“That’s a good point,” I comment. I don’t know if it makes anything better, though…

I continue looking at the materials in the cupboards. There’s a few large containers of fake blood and liquid latex, some supplies for applying this kind of makeup, as well as various realistic-looking fake weapons with pieces missing. These would be for Olivia.

After observing the contents of the cupboards, I walk across the room to take a closer look at the clothing racks. There’s two of them, each with six clothing hangers… These are…

“Our outfits?” Toka speaks as if continuing my thoughts.

“Looks like it,” I say, picking up one with a white hoodie, purple blazer, and black pants hanging from underneath. This is an exact copy of what I’m wearing.

“Strange…” Toka comments, holding the copy of his own outfit. I put mine back on the rack when I notice something on the floor. Underneath where each of our outfits hang lies a copy of our shoes.

Becca approaches us. “We have all these in our rooms, why are there copies here, too?”

“It is called the dressing room,” Reichiru comments.

“It’s still kinda weird,” I agree with Becca.

I look around the room once more, stepping towards the vanities. They’re pretty standard, nothing notable on them… I’m about ready to leave when a conversation starts.

“Why are you… looking at me like that?” Toka asks. There’s confusion in his voice…

“It’s just…” Chiho sighs, looking uncomfortable. “Is it true that you’ve killed before?”

“Oh.” Toka and I both realize what this is about. “I’m not proud of it, but… yes, I have.”

“If you’re not proud of it then why did you get a talent title for it?” She’s glaring a little, but also seems confused.

“I didn’t want this talent, alright?” He sighs in frustration. “I guess I just happened to get into the wrong business and ended up incredibly good at it. That doesn’t mean I _want_ to kill. I hate it,” he admits. “So I’m not gonna kill in this goddamn game.” He gives her a sincere look, clearly wanting to convince her that she can trust him.

“How many?” She asks, rolling her wheelchair slightly closer to him. “How many people have you murdered?”

He shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter.” He leaves the room without another word.

Silence falls over the room. This is exactly what Rikizou was going for with revealing Toka’s talent, isn’t it? Chiho clearly doesn’t trust him in the slightest anymore.

“There’s a library on this floor, right?” Becca breaks the silence. “Have you guys seen it yet?”

“I have,” I answer.

“I haven’t.” Reichiru walks towards the door and Becca follows her out.

After another short silence, I face Chiho. “You really don’t trust Toka at all, do you?”

“I…” She furrows her brows. “I don’t know.”

“I think Rikizou unintentionally brought up a good point last night regarding the motive,” I mention. “Toka didn’t kill for the motive that was most like his job outside this place. If he passed up that sort of opportunity, and insists that he doesn’t want to kill, I think we can trust him for now.”

“I just… I don’t think murder is forgivable,” Chiho explains. “If it’s in self defense, maybe… but even then, usually there’s a way to get out of the situation without killing your attacker. Taking someone else’s life away, especially for your own gain…” She looks disgusted by the thought.

“I understand that…” I take a moment to consider what to say. “But… I think we should try to stick together. Getting upset with him for something in his past that he’s clearly not proud of won’t help us find a way out of here without anyone else dying.”

“...You’re right. But I don’t think there is a way out…” She sounds hopeless.

“There might be,” I say. I lean closer and speak quietly. “Reichiru, Toka, and I were talking this morning about the person behind this, the Mastermind. We figure they’re probably in the hotel, hiding in that off-limits room in the basement,” I explain. “If we can find a way to defeat that person, we might be able to escape alive. But we’d all need to work together…”

“Maybe…” She sighs. “Jinshi, how are you so hopeful about all this? We just watched four people die. I don’t doubt that more death will follow. Even if we can get out, I’d bet it’s a much smaller group of us than you’re imagining…”

“We need to stay hopeful and at least try to get out or we’ll all just be sitting here waiting for the next murder to happen,” I explain. “I’ll admit it’s hard, but in a place like this, I don’t know how much longer I have to try these things.”

“Okay,” Chiho says. “I’ll try to ignore Toka’s talent for now and work with him on getting out of here. But once we’re out of here, don’t expect me to stay friends with him.”

“Thank you,” I say, relieved that I’m managing to get most of the group to work together. I think the hardest will be Rikizou, since he doesn’t seem to mind this place, all the death included…

“I’m gonna walk around for a little, I’ll see you later.” I wave before heading for the door.

“Seeya,” she gives a small smile and a wave before I leave.

I end up just going back to my room to think for a while. I lie down on my bed and stare at the ceiling, thinking about the Mastermind behind this all.

Are they really here, inside the hotel? Were they on the other side of that door in the basement when Olivia tried to open it? Who are they and what do they want with us?

I don’t even know where to start with looking for answers, but sitting around and doing nothing isn’t gonna get me anywhere. We don’t have a phone… we don’t have internet… I don’t think there’s any method of contact with the outside world in the entire hotel, besides maybe in that room in the basement, so I doubt that’s an option.

Could they be residing somewhere else and controlling us all through Monokuma? There’s enough cameras that if they had access to all of them, they could keep watch without being anywhere near us… but something tells me that’s not right.

Becca’s theory about aliens being behind this briefly crosses my mind before I brush it off. Though I will admit this situation is crazy enough that I might not even be so surprised if she’s the one out of all of us that ends up being right.

I decide that lying here and thinking isn’t helping much. Besides, I’m hungry… I check the time and find that it’s already evening, so I set off to the banquet hall for dinner.

I sit alone at an empty table and order from the orange Monomaid. It brings me my food shortly after and I begin to eat.

Osami joins my table a few minutes later, ordering from the Monomaid as well.

“H-hi, Jinshi…” He greets as the Monomaid brings him his food.

“Good evening, Osami.” I take a bite of my food.

“H-have you seen th-the library?” He asks between bites of his meal.

“Yeah, Toka and I checked it out earlier. You were in there, I guess you were too invested in your book to notice us.”

“O-oh, yeah, I g-guess so…”

“Are you still… hearing them all?” I ask.

“Y-yeah… A-Akitsuna and Takeyo’s spirits have, calmed down, a little… and Ha-Hatsumi doesn’t fight with Kaisuke a-as much as they did…”

“That’s good,” I comment. He mentioned reading is a good distraction, so I’m glad he’s got a whole room for it now.

We spend the rest of the meal in silence, but it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. The Monomaid collects our plates when we’re finished and we take the elevator up to the second guest floor together.

“Goodnight, Osami,” I say before heading towards my room.

“N-night, Jinshi… See you tomo-morrow…” He waves before dashing into his own room.

Back in my room, I hop in the shower and think about what to do tomorrow. This is what I did the first few days here, so maybe it’ll help me clear my head and move on from the murders. I don’t want to let anyone else die… Tomorrow, I’ll talk to the others about the Mastermind. We should all discuss ideas together, but first we need to get everyone on board.

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

The nighttime announcement plays as I’m getting out of the shower. Once I’ve dried off, I head to bed.


	13. Chapter 3: Day 2

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

Having slept fairly well, I get up just a few minutes after the announcement rather than sleeping in for an hour. I get dressed and leave my room.

When I get to the dining hall, no one’s there, so I pass through into the kitchen and grab a bowl of cereal. I sit alone in the dining hall to eat. I guess no one else is up yet…

When I’m finished eating, the orange Monomaid takes my dish and I leave. I take the elevator up to the second entertainment floor to see if people are hanging out in the new entertainment rooms.

When I step into the dressing room, my heart sinks.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
_stabbing in the head (fake)_

Sitting there, knife stabbed into her forehead, blood running down her face, expression blank as she stares at the wall…

“Morning, Jinshi!” Olivia suddenly moves and greets me.

“Holy shit--I thought you were dead!” I exclaim, taking a deep breath now that I’ve realized it’s fake.

“I know, right? I didn’t even think to ask the Monomaids for some of the stuff in here.” She pulls the half knife prop off of her forehead, revealing her real skin behind the false wound.

“Yeah…” In a situation like this, her talent in making her makeup look realistic is especially terrifying since the chance of it being real is much higher than outside a killing game.

Looking at her again, less distracted by her makeup, I notice that her hair is mostly down. A small section on either side of her head is loosely braided and held together in the back. It looks like a much simpler version of when Kaisuke styled her hair…

“This room was s’posed to be for him, too, looks like,” she comments in a slightly sad tone, gazing at the hair styling supplies. “Pretty fuckin’ neat that Osami can still hear him, huh? Good to know he’s still around.” She smiles at me but I can tell she misses Kaisuke a lot.

“Yeah, it’s cool that he can hear them.” I’m still slightly skeptical about that kind of stuff, but it seems like believing is best for Olivia right now.

“I was actually gonna check on him, I think he’s in the library--wanna come with?”

“Sure,” I agree.

“Ah, lemme get this shit off my face,” she says when she sees herself in the mirror. She grabs some makeup remover and gets to work on the makeup on her forehead. It doesn’t take long at all and we leave the dressing room.

When we enter the library, Osami is sitting on a couch facing away from the entrance, reading again. Olivia runs up and jumps over the back of the couch, landing herself next to Osami.

“How’s it goin’?” She asks him as I walk around and sit on a couch near them.

“O-oh, hi Olivia, a-and Jinshi…” He greets us with his usual stutter, seeming mildly annoyed by the interruption.

“What are you reading?” I ask.

“U-um, another book by th-the author who w-wrote the one the Monomaid gave me… Hi-Hitomi Takara,” Osami explains. “B-but, I noticed something…” He flips to the back of the book where a photo of the author is displayed.

“Ooh, she’s cute,” Olivia comments. “What about her?”

“Sh-she… Remember, in the first motive, w-we were shown videos, of people’s deaths…”

“That’s right, she died in one of those videos,” I recall. I wonder who knew her…

“Damn…” Olivia frowns. “Can you… hear _her_ spirit?”

“N-no… I d-don’t think she died here. I-I think those videos were filmed som-somewhere else,” Osami explains.

“So the Mastermind behind this must have some connection to wherever outside the hotel those people were killed…”

“I mean, in the last one, that guy that Becca and Akitsuna knew looked like he was on a boat or somethin’,” Olivia comments. “There was water in the back.”

We were shown all these videos without context, but it never occured to me how many clues there might be in them. I tried to block them out of my memory purely because of how morbid they were, but it might be a good idea to remember them…

“O-oh!” Osami looks slightly startled by something.

“What?” Olivia asks.

“I-I, I just heard… I-I think the two sp-spirits that were here wh-when we got here, they m-might know something…”

“Do they know about the deaths in the videos?” Could they be related somehow…? I don’t know if Osami hearing spirits is a reliable source of information, but it’s better than nothing.

“I-I can’t quite make out what they-they’re saying… b-but it sounds like they recognize something…”

“Let us know if you hear anything more, alright?” Olivia suggests.

“Y-yeah, I will… I’ll try…” Osami pauses. “I-I think they’re gone now…”

Struck with curiosity, I decide to ask. “Osami… have you always been able to hear spirits? Is there anything you did to be able to hear them or did it just… happen?”

“I-it sort of just… wh-when I was little, I heard m-meowing, all around the house… turns out m-my parents had a cat that d-died before I was born… th-they thought there was s-something wrong with me, s-so I didn’t tell them when I c-could hear dead people t-talking to me… i-it took a while, but, I-I learned to distinguish th-the voices of the living fr-from the voices of the dead,” he explains.

“Can you communicate with dead people, or only hear them?” I ask. “If you don’t mind me asking, that is…”

“N-no, it’s fine. I-it’s nice to talk about it w-without getting written off as cr-crazy…” Osami gives a small smile.

“No way we’d think you’re crazy, this shit is fuckin’ cool!” Olivia compliments, eager to hear more.

“Th-thank you,” Osami smiles bigger before continuing. “A-anyways… I-I’m able to t-talk to them, i-if I knew them in life… e-even then, it can be hard to get their attention. I-I have to be fully focused on c-communicating with them, a-and they’re more likely to respond i-if they know me… a-and it’s harder with other sp-spirits around,” he explains. “Th-though, some of it i-is just… anxiety… I-I get nervous try-trying to contact spirits I don’t kn-know…”

“I mean that’s fair, you don’t know what they could be like,” Olivia comments.

“Y-yeah… e-even with p-people I knew, they can be… different, in the afterlife… A lot of it depends on h-how they feel about th-their death… L-like Akitsuna, h-his spirit i-is very… angry… pr-probably because he died as a result of h-his plan failing… a-and the two I don’t know, they-they’re very quiet… th-they were probably _terrified_ in their last moments…”

“...What about Kaisuke?” Olivia asks in a serious tone.

“H-he’s… he’s pretty calm… I-I think he accepted h-his fate, before his execution… s-so he doesn’t m-mind, being dead…” Osami pauses. “M-maybe… i-if I hear him again, soon, maybe I-I could… talk to him.”

“Really!?” Olivia is immediately excited by the idea. “That’d be fuckin’ awesome! But, don’t push yourself, okay dude? As much as I’d love to hear from him again, I get if you can’t do it.”

“I-I think… I might try it, later,” Osami nods.

“Have you successfully contacted spirits before?” I ask.

“Y-yeah, one… m-my dad,” Osami says. “H-he was always so skeptical… about m-my abilities… but, when he saw that I could hear his sp-spirit, he apologized to me. Th-that was… good closure. Though… I’ve never been ab-able to channel a spirit before…”

“Channel?” The more this conversation goes on, the more curious I get.

“Y-yeah… some sp-spirit mediums can… i-it’s sort of like, handing over the controls of m-my body, while I take the backseat… th-the spirit can then talk to a-and interact with o-other people,” he explains. “I-I don’t think I could d-do it unless it’s so-someone I was r-really close with, a-and they were really a-at peace with their death…”

“That sounds really fuckin’ cool! I’m sure you’ll be able to do it some day!” Olivia pats him on the shoulder. “Not that I’m hoping someone you’re close with dies, just that you improve on your talent!”

“Y-yeah…” Osami smiles. The conversation kinda dies out after that, and my mind goes back to yesterday.

“There’s something we should talk about,” I start. “Something I was discussing with Reichiru and Toka yesterday morning.”

“Oh?” Olivia turns her attention to me.

“We think the Mastermind behind this killing game is here, in the hotel,” I explain. “There’s a chance it’s one of us, but I don’t think we should go around suspecting each other. I think it’s more likely they’re hiding in the basement without us even knowing they’re here…” I really don’t know which is more likely, but I want to trust the rest of the guests. “Remember that door you couldn’t get close to on our second day here?” I ask Olivia.

“Right! If they were here, they wouldn’t want us to fight them, so they’d make their hiding spot off-limits!” Olivia nods, understanding what I’m getting at.

“Th-that’s…” Osami seems like there’s something on his mind.

“What is it?” I ask.

“Wh-when I was in the basement… th-that’s where I hear the two unfamiliar spirits the most… I-I think that’s where they died…”

“That would make sense, if someone’s forcin’ us to kill each other then they might’ve killed people here themselves,” Olivia points out.

“Yeah… I’m just hoping to get everyone on board with working together to find a way out without anyone else dying.” I sigh.

“Yeah, good luck with Rikizou,” Olivia comments, huffing out a laugh. “He loves this morbid shit. But he’s smart, we could use his help. If anyone can get ‘im on our side, I think it’s you, Jinshi.”

“Really?” I… doubt that.

“Y-yeah, I agree,” Osami says.

“I’ll try.” I’m not so sure, but I have to at least try…

“I-I’d like to get back to reading, now… talking so m-much is tiring…” Osami reaches for his book again.

“Alright! I’m gonna head back to the dressing room then, seeya guys later!” Olivia hops back over the back of the couch and leaves the room.

Osami is immediately immersed in his reading again. I decide to look for a book to read myself, and end up finding a short novel that looks mildly interesting. I sit down and spend the afternoon reading.

When I’m finished the book, I return it to the shelf and glance at Osami. He’s still reading… looks like he’s onto another book. I leave the library on my own, starting to get hungry.

I make my way down to the lobby and head into the banquet hall. A few others are here eating in small groups. I approach the table where Becca sits alone.

“Hey, Becca,” I greet as I sit down.

“Hi, Jinshi,” she greets between bites of her meal. I order from the orange Monomaid and receive my food shortly after.

Should I talk to her about the Mastermind? She’s still convinced they’re an alien… I think she should know what we’ve figured out, but maybe I should phrase it in a way she’ll understand…

“Becca, I was talking with some of the others, and… while I’m not sure whether they’re an alien or not, I think the Mastermind behind this killing game is in the hotel. They could be one of us, or they could be hiding without us knowing they’re here,” I explain.

“That’s what I’ve been saying--someone’s gotta be an alien in disguise!” Becca exclaims.

I decide to look past the alien business for now. “They could be… but I also think it’s possible we haven’t seen them yet. I think for now we should trust all the guests here and work together to find a way out.”

“I’m not sure…” Becca bites her lip. “I can try. But if I know someone’s an alien, then I gotta do something… I can’t just sit around and let them take over, y’know?”

“Yeah…” I hope I’ve convinced her enough.

Becca finishes her meal shortly after. “Seeya later,” she says as she gets up.

“Bye,” I respond as she leaves.

I finish my meal on my own, trying to think of what else to do. I’ve talked to almost everyone about the Mastermind being here in the hotel… the only one left is Rikizou. Is Olivia right? Can I really convince him to help us get out of here? I feel like he’d laugh at my suggestion and ask me when I think the next murder will happen. The next murder… that’s right, if the Mastermind is following the same pattern as the first two motives, the next one should start tomorrow. That might make it harder to work together… but we have to do something.

When I’m finished my meal, I hand my plate off to the Monomaid before heading back to my room. I take a shower and go to bed shortly after the nighttime announcement.


	14. Chapter 3: Day 3

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

When I wake up, I feel hungry. I’m not incredibly tired, so I get up and head to the kitchen to get some food.

I fry up a couple eggs for myself and sit alone in the dining hall to enjoy my breakfast. I’m finishing up right around 9am, when I hand my plate off to the orange Monomaid and an announcement from Monokuma lights up the screen in the window.

_“Good morning! This is an announcement! Starting immediately, a new rule is in place! Please check your Monopads to make sure you don’t violate it! Upupu, happy killing!”_

New rule…? I take out my Monopad and see a notification. I open up the rulebook.

_Rule #10: Eating is strictly prohibited. Consumption of food will result in punishment._  
_Note: This rule is in effect until the next death occurs._

No eating… I’m suddenly really glad I got up so quickly to have breakfast. That might be my last meal for a while…

My last meal until we get out of here. We can’t let anyone else die.

I take a deep breath and step out into the lobby. I see Reichiru staring at the screen in disbelief, half-finished lollipop in hand. She sighs, pulls her mask up over her face, and snaps her fingers twice to summon the orange Monomaid. It rushes over and takes the lollipop from her before speeding off.

Reichiru turns around and finally notices me. “Oh. Good morning, Jinshi.”

“Morning…” I approach her. “With another motive in place, we should figure out a plan for what to do about the Mastermind. I’ve been talking to the others and they’re all on board so far, but I haven’t talked to Rikizou yet…”

“That’s a good idea. Maybe today we can all meet up and discuss possible courses of action,” she suggests. “I’ll leave it to you to convince Rikizou. I’d rather not deal with him.”

“Alright…” I sigh.

Reichiru walks away and approaches the elevator. When it comes down to collect her, Rikizou steps off.

“Speak of the devil,” Reichiru comments before entering the elevator and selecting her floor.

“Good morning, Jinshi,” Rikizou greets as he approaches me. “Looks like Monokuma has introduced another motive. How long do you think it’ll be until someone kills for some food?”

“We can’t let it get to that point,” I sigh. “Rikizou… I’d like you to work with us. We’re trying to find out who the Mastermind behind this is and how we can stop them. I know you don’t really mind it here at all, murder included, but we need you to cooperate with us. We all need to be on the same page or we’ll never be able to escape,” I explain.

Rikizou taps his chin as if he’s considering it. Something tells me he’s already made up his mind…

“And why do you need _my_ help?” He asks.

“We need all the help we can get,” I answer. “Our best chance at getting out of here alive is if we all work together.”

“You’re guaranteed to get out alive if you kill someone and get away with it. There’s no guarantee we’ll get out if we try to bring down this Mastermind,” Rikizou counters.

“I’m not gonna kill anyone,” I say. “I don’t want anyone else to die, I want to get out alive _with_ everyone, not on my own. With the new rule in place, we have a time limit, and soon enough we’ll get too distracted by hunger to think of a plan, and too weak to fight if that’s what it comes to…” I don’t know how I’m supposed to convince him.

He taps his chin again, for longer this time. He’s not saying anything…

“Rikizou, you helped us come to the right conclusion in both of the trials we’ve had to do so far. If you put that same effort into finding out who the Mastermind is and how we can end the killing game, I know we can succeed.”

“Resorting to flattery?” Rikizou smirks at me.

“That’s not--”

“I’ll do it.”

“Huh?” Is he really…

“I’ll help. Let me know when you’re discussing plans.” He turns around and gets back on the elevator, leaving me alone in the lobby.

That really worked… I guess all there is to do now is meet with everyone and try to come up with a plan, or see if there’s anything else we can figure out about who the Mastermind is.

I don’t know when we’re gonna meet up… we don’t really have a plan for that. Maybe I should look for Toka or Reichiru, since I originally talked to them about it… I start by taking the elevator up to the second floor.

I quickly find this was the right choice, as Toka is sitting alone in the seating area. I approach him.

“Hey, Toka,” I greet, sitting down.

“Hey,” he responds. “Looks like there’s a new motive, huh? I can last a while without food, but I’m worried for some of the others… hope it’s not enough to kill for.”

“Yeah…” I guess all we can do is hope. If we’re all together later, then we should be able to ensure no one wants to kill for this motive…

“You talk to everyone about the Mastermind yet?” Toka asks, interrupting my thoughts.

“Oh, yeah, that’s why I came to talk to you, actually. It’s probably better sooner than later to get everyone together and see if we can think of a way to get in that room without breaking any rules…”

“Yeah. Let’s meet in the library, I’ll get Reichiru, Olivia, and Osami, you get Chiho, Becca, and Rikizou,” he suggests.

“Alright,” I agree. I can understand why he might not want to find Chiho or Rikizou right now…

With that, Toka leaves and I’m left to think of where to find everyone. Chiho and Becca might still be in their rooms… as for Rikizou, I don’t know where he went after I saw him this morning. I decide to start with the girls and take the elevator to the first guest floor.

“Morning, Jinshi!” Becca greets me as soon as I’m off the elevator. Looks like she just left her room.

“Hey, Becca. Remember what we talked about yesterday at dinner? Everyone’s gonna meet in the library in a bit to talk about it, we’re gonna try to come up with a plan to get out of here without anyone else dying,” I explain.

“Ah, alright! Seeya there!” She walks past me onto the elevator and I continue down the hall.

I approach Chiho’s door and knock. “Chiho…?”

“Just a sec,” I hear her voice from the other side of the door. About a minute later, the door opens on its own. It looks like she has a button to open it easier due to her wheelchair. “Morning, Jinshi… what’s up?”

“Hey, Chiho. Everyone’s meeting in the library to talk about the Mastermind and any ideas we have for how to stop them,” I explain.

“Oh… I guess that’s a good idea, with a new motive starting… Alright, I’ll come with you.” She rolls out into the hallway.

“I still need to find Rikizou, you can come with me or you can meet us there,” I say as we get onto the elevator together.

“Ah, I’ll just meet you guys there, then.” She presses the button for the second entertainment floor after I select the second guest floor.

I get off the elevator on the second guest floor and wave to Chiho before the doors close again. I approach the door across from my own room and knock.

The door swings open instantly. “Hello, Jinshi. Do you need my intelligence for assistance in creating a plan to leave this place without any more death now?”

“Uh… yes? We’re meeting in the library now,” I respond.

“Let’s go.” He smiles and closes his door behind him as he leaves. I sigh and follow him onto the elevator, and we head up to the second entertainment floor.

When we enter the library, Becca and Chiho are there with everyone Toka gathered. Rikizou and I join the group, all of us sitting together on a few couches.

“So. All of us know of the room in the basement, yes?” Reichiru asks, taking initiative to start the discussion.

“Yeah, I think so,” I answer. No one else says anything, so I assume we’re right.

“I think it’s interesting that the door says ‘Do Not Open’,” Rikizou comments. Everyone turns to look at him, so he continues. “It doesn’t say ‘Do Not Enter’. If we find it open without one of us performing the action that opens it, we should be allowed to walk inside freely.”

“How’re we gonna do that? They’re not just gonna leave it open for us,” Olivia says.

“That’s right, you’d left by that point…” I recall our second day here. “After that Monomaid exploded, the door opened and a replacement Monomaid came out to take its place.”

“Did you see anything inside the room when it was open?” Chiho asks.

“No… it happened quickly, and opened just barely wide enough for a Monomaid to fit through,” I explain.

“But that means it can open!” Becca exclaims. “We can have someone fight the Monomaid, get it to explode away from us, then we wait for the door to open and run in before it can close!”

“That’s dangerous,” Toka shuts down her idea.

“Too dangerous for the Ultimate Hitman?” Rikizou inquires. Toka glares at him in response.

“I could barely get Olivia out of the way in time when that Monomaid exploded,” Toka explains. “If our goal is to not get anyone else killed, then we need a better plan.”

“We’d be expecting it this time, though,” Olivia notes.

“Still… I don’t doubt that the Mastermind could pull out something else to surprise us that ends up killing someone,” Toka worries.

“Jinshi said the door only opened wide enough for a single Monomaid and that it closed immediately after,” Reichiru states. “Even I, the smallest of us, am significantly larger than a Monomaid. I don’t think it’s possible for any of us to get inside the room with this method.”

“M-maybe…” Osami speaks up for the first time since we all got here. “Maybe, we could… st-stick something, in the door, to keep it open…”

“That might be too close to opening the door, especially if we push it any further,” Chiho says.

“R-right… sorry…” Osami looks dejected.

“You’re fine, dude, it was a good idea anyways!” Olivia pats him on the shoulder to cheer him up.

“Are we giving up on entering the room, then?” Rikizou asks. “Because I know who the Mastermind is, anyways.”

“Huh?” I look at him, confused.

“Who the fuck is it?” Olivia asks, seeming a little skeptical of his claim.

“Well, I can’t say it now. After all, they’re in this room.” He smirks.

...What?

I guess I knew there was a chance that it was someone within our group, but…

“Why can’t you say it, then?” Olivia glares at Rikizou. “If they’re here, we can take ‘em down together!”

“Sorry, I guess I’m just a little intimidated by them…” Rikizou smiles and scratches the back of his head. “After all, they know how to motivate people to kill.”

I look around at the others. Everyone’s glancing at each other nervously… I need to do something.

“How do you know who it is?” I ask Rikizou.

“Oh, the same way I knew about Toka’s talent and found key pieces of evidence for both of the murder cases we’ve solved, of course! My exceptional investigation skills,” he claims.

“What evidence do you have?” I glare at him.

“If I share that, it’ll reveal who it is, won’t it?” Rikizou remains calm. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up, now you’re all worried… my apologies.”

“If you’re not willing to share your evidence, then I don’t think we should be certain that it’s someone within our group,” I state.

“That’s fair,” Rikizou admits, backing off.

“I feel like we’ve gotten nowhere,” Chiho mutters.

“How about…” I think for a moment, unsure where to go with this conversation. “What if we all spend the rest of the day thinking of ideas for how to catch the Mastermind without anyone else dying, and meet again at the same time tomorrow to discuss them?”

“That’s a good idea,” Toka states.

“Sure,” Chiho agrees.

“Am I free to go, then?” Rikizou asks.

“Yeah, I guess,” I sigh.

Rikizou leaves first and one by one, others start to leave the library. Osami stays and finds a new book to read, while I stay sitting with Toka.

“I think I need some coffee,” Toka says, getting up.

“Mind if I come with?” I ask, standing as well.

“Not at all,” he responds.

We leave the library together and take the elevator down to the second floor, where we walk to the coffee shop and each order a drink from the Monomaid.

We sit together once we have our drinks and it’s silent for a moment. My mind wanders to all the things that have been going on… I definitely feel like I should still trust Toka, but his talent is kind of worrying. Maybe if I know more about him, I’ll feel better about trusting him regardless of that…

“You’ve got something on your mind,” Toka states.

“Huh?” Am I that easy to read?

“Guess it’s a bit of an older brother instinct I’ve picked up spending so much time with my sibling,” he comments. “What’s up?”

“Uh, I was thinking about your talent, actually…” That sounds like I’m judging him, doesn’t it?

“Ah. I get it if you’re kinda wary of me now, I probably would be too.”

“No, well… I guess I’m not sure what to think, but it hasn’t changed my overall opinion of you…”

“Geez, if knowing I’ve killed people doesn’t make you think less of me then how bad of a first impression did I make?” He laughs a little as he speaks. “Sorry. Probably shouldn’t joke about that kinda stuff…”

“No, I didn’t mean it negatively… I guess just the way you were talking when Chiho was asking you about your talent… you don’t want this talent, right?”

“That’s right. I just ended up in the wrong business is all… I’ve been tryin’ to get a more legal job with decent enough pay to move me and my sibling into our own place. We’ve never been the richest, and our parents didn’t do all that much for us, so I needed money… ended up meeting the wrong people at a very desperate time, and I’ve been working with them ever since.”

“What made you agree to do it?” I wonder if he had a chance to stop…

“The money. I guess at first, that much money was worth more than a human life to me… I could detach myself enough from my target that I got fairly used to it. Plus, most of my jobs were targeting people who did some shitty stuff, so I could convince myself they deserved it.”

“I see…” I’m starting to understand. He’s definitely been through a lot… I hope he can get out of this place alive and properly quit his work as a hitman. I hesitate to ask, but I’m still curious about something… “Have you… kept track of how many… jobs you’ve done?” It almost feels rude to phrase it as ‘how many people have you killed’...

“47,” he states.

“Oh.” I’m surprised that he answered so easily, considering his response when Chiho asked…

“I know, it’s a lot… I don’t know if it makes it any better, but that was over the span of three years. I didn’t tell Chiho since she was already judging me so harshly… I don’t want that kind of conflict.”

I nod in understanding, sipping my drink. After a short pause, I decide to change the topic.

“I’m glad we can still have coffee and other drinks,” I note, referring to the currently active motive.

“Yeah. If both eating and drinking were off limits, we’d have about three days ‘til people start dying…” Toka sighs.

“We can get through this,” I state, determined. “We need to.” My stomach grumbles, reminding me of how long it’s been since breakfast. At least I was fortunate enough to get breakfast in time…

“Someone’s gotta think of something,” Toka says. “There’s eight of us, even with hunger as a distraction we’ll end up with some sorta plan.”

“You’re right,” I agree. We’ll come up with something…

Both of us finish our drinks and hand our cups back to the Monomaid before parting ways. I make my way back to my room and sit on the bed.

As soon as I sit down, my stomach lets out a loud growl. It’s right around dinner time… This is gonna be an annoying motive. I decide to take an extra long shower to try to distract myself.

I get out of the shower with some time to spare before the nighttime announcement, since I didn’t take any time to get dinner. I dry off and put on my pajamas regardless and try to get some sleep. All I can think of is how hungry I am…

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

It doesn’t matter if the dining hall and banquet hall are locked if none of us can eat anyways… I lie there, trying to get myself to sleep. It takes another few hours of lying there and trying to ignore the hunger before I manage to drift off to sleep.


	15. Chapter 3: Day 4 + 5

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I wake up a little at the morning announcement, but I’m still incredibly tired. It was hard to get to sleep last night, so I didn’t end up sleeping much… I fall back asleep fairly quickly.

When I eventually wake up again, I check the clock to find that it’s already noon. I slowly, drowsily, and hungrily get out of bed and change into my usual outfit. It takes me a moment to realize that I missed the meeting time. I rush to the library, but not too quickly, as to not waste too much energy.

Olivia and Osami are the only two people here. I walk up to them.

“Did I miss it…?” I ask, still fighting off my sleepiness.

“Reichiru just fuckin’ passed out when she got here,” Olivia says.

“Huh?” Hearing that wakes me up a little more.

“Guess she’s not taking the hunger very well,” Olivia explains. “I mean, she’s pretty small in the first place. She’d probably need the energy more than most of us.”

“T-Toka took her to the nu-nurse’s office, a-and then everyone else l-left…” Osami adds, helping out on filling me in.

“I see…” I guess after that, everyone gave up on the meeting. “I’ll go check on her,” I say before leaving the library.

I take the elevator down to the second floor and enter the nurse’s office. Reichiru is resting in the bed and no one else is in the room.

“Excuse me,” Toka says from behind me.

“Oh,” I step aside. He walks into the room holding a glass of water and sets it down on the table next to the bed.

“You hear what happened?” He asks, turning back to me.

“Yeah, Olivia told me… I guess no planning meeting for now.”

“Yeah…” Toka sighs. “I’m gonna keep an eye on her in here.”

“Alright…” I don’t have much of a reason to stick around here, so I decide to leave. “I’ll see you later.”

“Seeya,” Toka waves as I leave the nurse’s office.

I head to the coffee shop and order some hot chocolate from the Monomaid. This is about as close as I can get to eating right now… Olivia shows up shortly after.

“I’m fuckin’ hungry,” she comments as she approaches the counter where she orders a drink from the Monomaid.

“Same,” I say. She sits down at my table.

“God, I fuckin’ hate this place…” She sighs before taking a sip of her drink.

I don’t respond. I would say something hopeful about working together and getting out, but I think we’re all losing motivation for that. Either someone’s gonna kill soon, or we’re all gonna sit around here until someone dies of starvation, or breaks the rule and gets punished.

“At least we’ve got this,” I finally say, holding up my drink before taking a sip.

“I just… wish I knew _why_ , y’know? Why we’re all here, why we can’t leave, why do we have to kill each other… What kind of fucked up person is behind this…” Olivia sighs in frustration before sipping her drink again.

“I wish I knew too,” I say.

“Why did Kaisuke have to get involved in this fucked up game…” She frowns, eyebrows furrowed as she stares down at the table. “Sorry, I’m just. Fuckin’ annoyed by this whole thing. Why can’t that bitchass Rikizou just tell us what he knows so I can punch that Mastermind in their ugly fuckin’ face?”

“I agree, it’s annoying that he won’t share what he knows… though I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s lying about knowing anything,” I note. “With how he acted about Toka’s talent, it seems like he just wants to make people suspicious of each other, which is worse for our chances of getting out of here alive.”

Olivia is silent for a moment. “What if he’s the Mastermind?” She finally speaks, voice lowered as she leans over the table.

“Rikizou…?” I guess it’s possible… Maybe he wanted to hint to us that we were right about it being one of the guests without revealing himself. Plus, the Mastermind would definitely want us not to trust each other…

“I don’t know,” I finally say. “He could be. At this point, anyone could be… but I still wanna think that it’s someone we don’t know.”

“I just wanna give that fuckin’ Mastermind what they deserve,” Olivia leans back in her chair.

“I just don’t want anyone else to die… I don’t care what happens to the Mastermind, I just want them to stop,” I say.

“You’re a really nice dude, Jinshi,” Olivia comments.

“Thanks?” Where’s this coming from…?

“I mean, this person is responsible for at least four, probably more innocent people’s deaths, and your only goal is to not let anyone else die,” she explains. “I guess… two of ‘em killed so they’re not completely innocent, but the Mastermind made them do it and then killed them for it.”

“Yeah, I guess… I also want some answers about why they did this, and I think they should be put in jail or something… I don’t think I’d forgive them for doing this, but I don’t wanna fight them myself,” I explain.

“Avoiding conflict?” She asks. I nod in response. “Yeah, I don’t mind conflict so long as it gets resolved. And I wanna resolve this conflict with my fist in the Mastermind’s face.”

“That’s fair,” I comment. That much at _least_ would definitely be deserved.

We each finish our drinks and hand our cups back to the Monomaid. We head to the elevator together.

“I’m gonna check on Osami, he’s been strugglin’ with the lack of food,” Olivia says. “Seeya later, Jinshi!”

“Seeya.” We part ways when I get off the elevator on the first entertainment floor.

I haven’t been here in awhile. I enter the arcade. I mostly played games here with Hatsumi… I shake off the memory and approach a single-player machine. I’m able to distract myself for a few hours when my stomach starts to ache. I try to distract myself for longer, but it gets worse so I leave the arcade.

I head back to my room and lie down. I can definitely feel my energy depleting without food… We need to do something, but we’re all running out of energy to get anything done. I almost find myself hoping someone breaks the rule so we can all eat, but I so desperately don’t want anyone else to die. I don’t know what to do…

I manage to get myself up and take a shower before heading to bed in time with the nighttime announcement.

…

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

My stomach hurts. I don’t want to move… There’s nothing I can do.

I lie there for about two hours before finally dragging myself out of bed at 10am. I might be in pain, but I need to see what the others are up to… how they’re doing. I get dressed and leave my room.

I decide to check the second entertainment floor first, since a lot of us have been spending time up there lately. When I get there, the library is empty. I walk across the hall and enter the dressing room.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _bleeding out, passing out_

When I enter the room, I’m immediately shocked by the sight of blood. Did someone…

No, there’s a container of fake blood on the floor. It’s knocked over and the lid’s open.

And next to the container…

“Olivia?” She doesn’t respond. She’s lying on the floor in the middle of the pool of fake blood… Did she come here to do some makeup and pass out? She’s much taller than me, I probably couldn’t get her to the nurse’s office on my own…

I leave the dressing room and take the elevator down to the second floor of the hotel.

Toka and Rikizou are sitting near each other in the seating area. I can sense a lot of tension… I break it by approaching them.

“Olivia passed out in the dressing room,” I explain.

Toka immediately stands up and heads for the elevator. Rikizou and I follow and we go back to the second entertainment floor.

As soon as the three of us enter the dressing room…

_ding dong dong ding “A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the trial will begin!"_

“...What?” My eyes widen in shock when I hear the announcement. I peek past the other two and see her again, collapsed on the floor… definitely lifeless.

Olivia Kuroda, the Ultimate SFX Makeup Artist, is dead.

“Ah yes, definitely ‘passed out’,” Rikizou comments sarcastically.

I stare at her body, struggling to process this. Is she really… she has to be, if that announcement just played. I step out into the hallway, needing a moment.

I take a deep breath and check my Monopad for the Monokuma File.

_Monokuma File 03_   
_Victim: Olivia Kuroda_   
_Time of death: 7:38am_   
_Cause of death: blood loss_

Then that blood really was hers… Now that I think about it, it looked like way more than could fit in the fake blood container. It covered a huge area surrounding her body.

My attention is caught by the elevator bringing Osami, Chiho, Becca, and Reichiru to this floor.

“Wh-who… who was it?” Osami hesitantly asks me.

“...Olivia,” I answer, knowing he probably won’t take this well considering how close they were.

“O-oh…” Osami steps to the side of the hallway and leans against the wall, clearly not wanting to look.

Toka and Rikizou come back out into the hallway, and immediately after, Monokuma appears seemingly out of nowhere.

“Another murder, huh? How fun! I wonder who did it!” He grins at us all.

“How can you say that?” Chiho glares at him.

“Upupupu!” Monokuma ignores her remark, laughing it off. “Anyways, you’re all _starving_ , aren't cha? Because of the motive, I’ll allow you extra time before the trial, starting with a feast served by the orange Monomaid in the banquet hall starting immediately!”

“How generous,” Rikizou says, seeming genuinely thankful somehow.

“I know, right? Now get down there if ya wanna eat before the trial!” Just as quickly as he appeared, Monokuma leaves.

The seven of us get onto the elevator, all heading down to the banquet hall. I sit at a table with Becca and Osami.

We all order from the Monomaid and eat in silence. I’m assuming all we can think about is Olivia’s death…

“U-um…” Osami breaks the silence. “I-I think… I can, k-kind of hear Olivia… b-but I’d n-need to tr-try to contact, her, to ask anything ab-bout the murder…”

“Do you think you can do that?” I ask, trying not to push him.

“I-I’ll try… I-I’d need som-some of the st-stuff from my room,” he explains.

“That’s right, you have some talent related items in there, right?” I recall hearing that from others despite not having anything of my own.

“Y-yeah,” Osami confirms before going back to his meal.

“I’ll be investigating now if anyone wants to join me,” Rikizou speaks loudly to let everyone hear him before leaving the banquet hall. I brush it off and continue eating.

As I eat, I notice Reichiru leaves as well, presumably to investigate. I try to think of where I might go when I’m finished…

“ACK!!” Becca shouts, bringing my attention away from my food. I look at her to see her picking her plate up off her lap while sighing in frustration.

“Are you okay?” I ask, offering to help.

“Oh, I’m fine! Just gotta get changed now…” She stands up. “I was just about done my food anyways so I didn’t waste much.” She walks out of the banquet hall, leaving her plate for the Monomaid to collect. I shrug it off and continue eating.

“I-I’ll go get m-my stuff, now,” Osami says, standing. “I-I’ll b-be in the libr-brary when I’m ready.” He leaves the banquet hall as well.

I finish up my food on my own and leave, heading for the elevator. The only place I can think to investigate is the dressing room… I step onto the elevator before Chiho and Toka join me. Chiho selects the second guest floor and Toka selects the second entertainment floor. I guess I’m going with Toka for now.

Chiho gets off on the second guest floor and the elevator doors close for Toka and I to continue upwards. Moments after, we hear someone scream from a floor below.

_ding dong dong ding “A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the trial will begin!"_

“Another…?” I look at Toka to see he’s just as shocked as I am.

“I’d guess that’s Chiho’s scream,” he says, pressing the button for the second guest floor as soon as the elevator stops.

We get off the elevator and see Chiho in the hallway, clearly upset. The door next to her is open. Toka and I pass her to see what’s inside.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _hanging, broken neck_

The first thing I notice is Reichiru, knelt down to the floor inspecting some scattered items. Then, my attention is caught by the most shocking thing in the room, hanging from the ceiling…

Osami Shimizu, the Ultimate Spirit Medium, is dead.

“Osami…” I’m in shock. Why is he dead? _Why?_ Someone already died, this didn’t need to happen… Olivia’s death didn’t need to happen, either, but Osami’s even less…

“Two murders, how interesting!” Monokuma’s voice startles me. I turn around to see that Rikizou and Becca have also arrived.

“If there are two murders, which one are we to investigate for the trial?” Rikizou asks calmly.

“These trials are first come, first serve! Only Olivia’s killer will be punished, and that’s only if you find out who it is! But it’s always a fun challenge to try n’ figure out the second murder, too, so I’ll extend your investigation time a little more for Osami’s death!”

“Let’s get his body down,” Toka suggests, mostly ignoring Monokuma. I approach where he hangs to help Toka.

I don’t like this… bringing down his corpse like this. We rest him on his bed.

He shouldn’t have died… who did this?

I look at the rope that hung him. It’s tied in a noose… Could it be suicide? Would he do something like that at a time like this? He did just lose his friend, but he seemed determined to contact her…

I sigh and cross the room, checking my Monopad for the Monokuma file.

_Monokuma File 04_   
_Victim: Osami Shimizu_   
_Time of death: 11:02am_   
_Cause of death: broken neck_

Broken neck… That means it was a quick death, right? At least he didn’t suffer for too long… I glance at his body before approaching the items Reichiru was looking at on the floor.

There are a few candles and a book on channeling spirits. It looks like there’s a lot of bookmarks in it. Was he planning on channeling Olivia…? He told me about that before, maybe he felt that he was close enough with her that he could try…

Something I notice is how they’re scattered. It’s like he was holding them all and then dropped them suddenly. Why would he do that…?

I think I’ve found everything in here… After the first two cases, I feel the need to try harder with investigating. I walk onto the elevator by myself.

Before I press the button, Chiho starts rolling towards the elevator. I keep it open for her to get on before pressing the button for the second entertainment floor. Once the elevator gets there, we both get off and head into the dressing room.

“That’s… a lot of blood,” Chiho comments.

“Yeah,” I agree. From here I already notice a lot of footprints through the blood, probably from investigating.

“I’d rather not roll my chair through it all, do you mind investigating closer and telling me what you find?” Chiho requests.

“Yeah, I can do that,” I agree.

I hesitantly step into the puddle of blood and approach Olivia’s body. Up close, I can tell that some of the blood is definitely from the fake blood container, but most of it is her own. I crouch down to inspect her body.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _slit throat_

It looks like the fatal wound is on her neck… the killer must’ve slit her throat. That would make sense with the cause of death…

I stand back up and look closer at the footprints through the blood. I wonder if any of these are the killer’s… I guess there’s no way to know now. I make my way out of the pool of blood and grab some paper towels from one of the vanities to get the blood off my shoes.

Back on the clean area of the floor, I step around the pool of blood to check out the clothing racks. I glance across all the outfits, ready to head back to the door and tell Chiho what I found, when I notice something.

On one of the pairs of shoes, there’s blood. A lot of blood. I check what outfit they’re under and find that they’re Osami’s shoes. What… could _that_ mean?

I step away from the clothing racks and approach Chiho again.

“Anything weird?” She asks.

“Uh… I saw the fatal wound, someone must’ve slit her throat… and some of the blood is fake,” I say, pointing at the fake blood container, “but most of it is hers. And over in the clothing racks, a pair of Osami’s shoes have blood on them…”

“If he’s the killer then who’s supposed to get punished?” Chiho wonders.

“No idea…” Could it really be him…? I start heading for the door, not wanting to stay in a room with a corpse and that much blood any longer.

“Thanks, anyways. Shoes are a lot easier to clean off than wheels, so I appreciate you telling me what you saw,” Chiho smiles as she also leaves the room.

“No problem.” We both head onto the elevator.

I select the ground floor and we take the elevator down in silence. We both get off on the same floor but part ways.

I start to head towards the kitchen when I notice something in the corner of my eye in the hallway leading towards the pool. I change direction and walk over to check it out.

At first it looked like someone spilled something on the floor, but closer up I can see it’s definitely blood. Not a lot of it, but a couple drops. Why would that be all the way over here… It could be unrelated, but it’s worth noting.

I get back on track and pass through the dining hall. I notice Reichiru sitting with her legs kicked up on the table, enjoying a lollipop. I’m sure she’s missed those…

I enter the kitchen. I’m not sure what I might find here, but it feels like a good idea to be investigating more places than I did for the past cases. I approach the sink.

There’s wet clumps of something… is that salt? I don’t trust it enough to taste, but it definitely looks like salt. I don’t know if that’s relevant, but it seems a little strange…

I move on and look at the counter. There are some crumbs from something… strange that the Monomaid hasn’t cleaned it up yet. We haven’t been able to eat for days, usually stuff like this is cleaned up overnight. We just ate in the banquet hall, could someone have come here to get a snack afterwards…? Or…

Did the killer come here to eat immediately after their crime?

_"Erm, so ah... I'm getting tired of waiting. What say we just get started, hm? It's time for the long-awaited trial! Now then, please take the elevator to the roof! Puhuhu. See you soon!"_

No, not yet…! I just need a little longer… I frantically glance around the kitchen. Trash! I check the trash can, fully expecting it to get me nowhere.

This assumption is proven wrong when I find something huge, plastic, and covered in blood in the trash can. I take it out and hold it up to find that it’s a disposable rain poncho. Why would this be…

I’m snapped out of my thoughts when the orange Monomaid taps on my leg. It holds up a sign that says ‘It’s time for the trial. Please get on the elevator.’ I guess I need to go now… I shove the rain poncho back in the trash and leave the kitchen.

I get on the elevator and wait for it to collect everyone else before bringing us up to the roof. All the evidence I found is racing through my mind… I don’t know who it could be. I definitely found more than the last cases, but did I find everything?


	16. Chapter 3: Trial

We arrive on the roof. Like the past two trials, the dome displays a dark nighttime scene, though this time there are several tall trees surrounding the building, almost as tall as the building itself. An endless forested landscape can be seen, stretching into the horizon.

I approach my podium, everything still racing through my mind. Six of the podiums are now occupied by stands in place of those we’ve lost. That’s half of us. Why did two more people have to die…? Why is our only choice now to let one more person die? All we can do is try our hardest to not let that person be the only one who lives.

“You know the deal!” Monokuma breaks the silence once everyone’s at their podiums. “Your votes determine the results. Figure out ‘whodunnit,’ or you’ll all be punished and the blackened will check out! Now figure it out, I’ll let you know when it’s time to vote!”

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _discussion of hanging, suicide, and slit throat_

“Monokuma,” Rikizou starts, “We need only find Olivia’s killer, correct? Osami’s death is irrelevant?”

“Correct! I’ll let you discuss his death all you want, but in the end you’re voting for Olivia’s killer!” Monokuma confirms.

No one speaks. Maybe I should start…

“Does anyone have an alibi?” I ask. “Her time of death was 7:38 this morning.”

“I was asleep in my room,” Chiho answers.

“I think we all were,” Toka adds.

“Was anyone not asleep?” Reichiru asks. Everyone stays silent.

“Then no one has an alibi,” Rikizou concludes. “It could’ve been anyone.”

“Let’s discuss something else,” Reichiru proposes. “Her cause of death according to the Monokuma File was blood loss.”

“There was a lot of blood,” Becca comments. “I didn’t find a murder weapon though.”

“Did anyone find a murder weapon?” I ask, considering everything I found. I don’t think there was anything that could’ve been it…

“Maybe the killer disposed of the murder weapon,” Toka suggests. “Or cleaned it off.”

“The fatal wound was a slit throat, right?” Reichiru comments. “If Toka is right, the killer could’ve used a knife from the kitchen and brought it back to clean off immediately. That would line up with the blood in the pool hallway…”

“There was blood in the pool hallway?” Becca repeats, shocked.

“Yeah, I saw it too. Just a few drops,” I confirm. “If the killer went back to the kitchen right after killing Olivia, the dining hall doors wouldn’t have been opened yet. I think Reichiru is implying the killer hid in the pool hallway with the bloody knife until the morning announcement.”

“Exactly,” Reichiru confirms.

“Does that tell us anything about who did it, though?” Chiho asks. “Anyone could’ve gotten a knife from the kitchen…”

“The killer must’ve put a lot of thought into their crime,” Rikizou comments. “If they had the knife on them in the morning before the kitchen was open, they must’ve obtained it before the start of nighttime.”

“I don’t know if it helps lower it down, but I found some things that might confirm the killer went to the kitchen after killing Olivia,” I mention. “In the trash, there was a disposable rain poncho covered in blood. If they knew how much blood slitting a throat would result in, they could use that to prevent it from getting on their clothes. And on the counter, there were some crumbs, so someone probably ate there recently enough that the Monomaid didn’t clean it up yet.”

“Knowing their actions is essential, but at this point it doesn’t help lower down who it might be,” Reichiru states. “Maybe we should discuss something else.”

I try to think of what else to discuss. They’re right, anyone could have gotten a kitchen knife and asked a Monomaid for a disposable rain poncho… The method of murder isn’t getting us anywhere.

“Monokuma,” Chiho breaks the silence. “Who would we vote for if Olivia’s killer is dead?”

Huh…? Does she think…

“All you have to do is find the culprit! Ever notice that you can select dead guests when voting? If the blackened is already dead, I’d have to sort out other arrangements for a punishment, but you’d still need to vote for them!”

“So we’d vote for him anyways…” Chiho mutters. “I think it was Osami,” she speaks more clearly.

“What?” Toka asks, surprised by her accusation. “Weren’t they good friends?”

“I know, it sounds strange, but… Jinshi, didn’t you find something in the dressing room that could prove me right?” She looks at me.

Something in the dressing room? She means…

“Osami’s shoes,” I state. “The extra pair that were found under his outfit on the clothing racks. They were covered in blood.”

“Osami never set foot in that room after Olivia died,” Rikizou mentions. “He stayed in the hallway, then came with us for the feast, then went to his room where he died. He hung himself, too… must’ve been unable to handle the guilt of brutally murdering his close friend…”

“That can’t be it,” I counter. “They were too close…” I must have some evidence that can prove my point…

“Maybe he was blinded by hunger, and did it because he really needed to eat,” Becca suggests. “That was the motive, anyways…”

“No, I know it,” I state, remembering the evidence that can prove my point. “He was going to contact her using his talent. As the Ultimate Spirit Medium, he’s been hearing the spirits of dead people since we got here. He was going to contact her… no, more than that. He was going to try to channel her,” I explain.

“Channel?” Chiho asks.

“He explained it to me recently,” I start. “He described it as handing over the controls of his body to a spirit and letting them interact with the world through his body. He figured he’d only be able to do it with someone he was really close to in life, so I think he wanted to try with Olivia’s spirit since they were so close.”

“I doubt he’d want to channel her if he’d killed her,” Reichiru notes. “Unless he was planning on faking a channeling and acting as her to convince us someone else did it.”

“He could’ve,” Chiho says. “And then the guilt hit him and he committed suicide to escape his crime.” She frowns.

“Or, what if,” Becca cuts in with a suggestion, “He successfully channeled her, and she wanted revenge since he killed her, so she killed herself? Himself? Killed him… committed suicide _as_ him.”

“No, Osami said that he’d meet us in the library when he was ready to contact Olivia’s spirit,” I recall. “I figure he chose that spot because it’s near where she died and he’s comfortable in there. I don’t think he would’ve tried to channel her on his own.”

“Maybe he wanted to apologize to her?” Becca considers.

“With how Jinshi described it, Osami wouldn’t have been able to communicate with Olivia while channeling her spirit,” Reichiru notes. “She would only be able to communicate with us.”

“Okay, maybe I was wrong… but he definitely killed himself for some reason! Just don’t know why…” Becca pouts as she admits defeat.

“Shall we discuss his death now that we’re on the topic of it?” Rikizou asks.

“No, that’s a waste of time,” Chiho shuts him down. “We can mourn him later. What happened was awful… but we need to focus on Olivia’s death right now.”

“No, I think we should discuss it,” Reichiru says. “I believe solving his murder would help us get closer to finding Olivia’s killer.”

“Murder? But wasn’t it suicide?” Becca asks.

“I don’t think so,” Toka says. “If Osami was planning on contacting Olivia’s spirit, her killer could’ve targeted him, if getting an answer from her spirit meant their crime would be exposed.”

“You make a good point, Mr. Hitman,” Rikizou states, “But it was definitely a suicide. You saw his body hanging from the ceiling with a noose, didn’t you? Or can you use your expertise in killing to assure us that it was a murder?”

“Yeah, it was a suicide… Wasn’t it?” Becca looks confused.

“As much as I hate to prove Rikizou right, I did notice a detail about his death that makes it unlikely it was a suicide,” Toka explains. “His cause of death was a broken neck.”

“Can’t hanging break someone’s neck?” Chiho asks.

“Yes, it can, but usually only if the person is dropped a long distance,” Toka continues. “It’s possible, but unlikely. More likely that the killer snapped his neck and then hung him with a noose to frame it as a suicide.”

“The professional murderer helps us solve the case!” Rikizou exclaims sarcastically. “So it wasn’t a suicide. You win. But who did it?”

“No, I still think it could’ve been a suicide…” Chiho cuts in. “I think you’re looking too much into this. Not everything is a clue that something else was going on… even if he wasn’t Olivia’s killer, he was definitely upset that he’d just lost his friend.”

There has to be something else that suggests this was a murder rather than a suicide… What else did I find in his room…

“The items on the floor,” I state. “There were a few candles and the book on channeling spirits. They were scattered as if they were dropped suddenly. It would be strange for him to collect everything he needed to channel Olivia’s spirit and just drop them on the floor before committing suicide.”

“Excellent observational skills, Jinshi!” Rikizou compliments. “You’re getting better at these investigations, maybe you’ll be as good as me one day. In that case, this was definitely a murder and Osami’s killer is Olivia’s killer.”

“Fine, whatever… then who killed Olivia?” Chiho drops her insistence that it was suicide and refocuses the discussion.

“Let’s see, what have we discussed so far regarding her death…” Rikizou taps his chin, thinking back to the start of the trial. “No one has an alibi, her cause of death was blood loss, the murder weapon may have been a kitchen knife, there was blood on Osami’s shoes and the floor of the pool hallway, and there was a bloody disposable rain poncho and some crumbs in the kitchen. Anything else?”

“That’s all we discussed so far,” Becca confirms. “I don’t think I found anything else.”

“That’s right, I found something else in the kitchen,” I recall. “In the sink, there was… it looked like wet clumps of salt.”

“Salt?” Chiho asks.

“The killer had a snack, right? Maybe they like salty food, but got some in the sink or something,” Becca suggests.

“No, I think I know what it was,” Toka disputes. “Mixing salt and cold water into a paste is a method of removing blood stains from clothing.”

“Of course the Ultimate Hitman would know something like that,” Rikizou comments.

“The killer must’ve known too,” Reichiru adds.

“Couldn’t it have been Toka, then?” Rikizou looks at Toka. “If you knew about this beforehand, you could’ve used this method cleaning up after your crime.”

“There’s not enough evidence against me,” Toka brushes off his accusation. “Anyways, if the killer used this method, they’d have to have hidden in the kitchen for at least 20 minutes with the salt mixture on their clothes. Since it was early morning and no one knew a murder happened, they could stay there safely with low risk of being found. Once the blood stains are out, though, they’d have to wash their clothes normally… Has anyone been in the laundry room lately?”

“I investigated there, but not until after Osami’s death,” Reichiru answers. “I found a load of Becca’s clothes running in a washing machine.”

“Care to explain?” Rikizou tilts his head, looking at Becca.

“It wasn’t me! I spilled my food on my clothes at the feast,” Becca explains. “I went and got changed and then brought my dirty clothes down to wash them. I don’t think there was any other laundry running when I was there…”

“She’s right,” I confirm, recalling the event from earlier.

“Wouldn’t that be a convenient cover for washing previously bloodstained clothes?” Rikizou accuses.

“I’m not the killer! Why would I do that?” Becca looks offended by his accusation. “It was just bad timing, I guess. I didn’t even know about that salt removing blood thing Toka was talking about.”

“And how do we know you’re not lying about that?” Rikizou continues to accuse her.

“I didn’t do it! I didn’t have any reason to kill her, I was too hungry to even _think_ about murder, anyways!” Becca continues to defend herself.

I can think of one reason she might have something against Olivia… but I don’t know if it’s enough to accuse her of murder. What else is there…

“If we’re assuming that the culprit in both murders is the same person, then maybe we should discuss alibis for Osami’s time of death,” I suggest.

“That’s a good idea,” Reichiru comments. “His time of death was 11:02am according to the Monokuma file. At that time, I was investigating in the dressing room on the second entertainment floor. Rikizou was there.”

“She’s right, we were both investigating Olivia’s death,” Rikizou confirms. “I believe I left around 11:10am.”

“I was still in the banquet hall,” Chiho states. “Toka and Jinshi were still there, too.”

“Yeah, we all left around the same time and found Osami’s body shortly after,” Toka confirms.

“Looks like there’s only one of us without an alibi,” Rikizou says, looking at Becca.

“W...what? It wasn’t me, I was washing my clothes!” Becca claims, trying to defend herself.

“If you acted quickly, you could’ve killed him and then left for the laundry room before Toka, Jinshi, and Chiho got on the elevator,” Reichiru states.

“B-but… he was hanging! If I acted quickly, how would I have killed him and then hung him up? Plus, I’m pretty small and weak, how could I have lifted up his entire body and hung him up on my own, especially that quickly?” Becca pokes holes in Reichiru’s statement.

“You’re right, the timing of that doesn’t line up…” Reichiru looks down, rethinking her statement.

“Unless someone else hung him,” Toka suggests.

“What?” I look at him. What does he mean by that…?

“Think about it. The body discovery announcement plays after three people besides the killer have seen the corpse. It went off when Chiho saw Osami’s body, and when Jinshi and I got there, Reichiru was the only one in the room. Someone else had already been there,” Toka explains.

Who else… there’s only two people it could’ve been. One killed him and the other hung his body…

“It was either Rikizou or Becca,” I state.

“If Becca’s telling the truth about being too weak to lift Osami’s body on her own, then Rikizou must have done it,” Reichiru deduces.

“You caught me,” Rikizou admits. “I found Osami’s body first, and asked the Monomaid for a rope which I used to hang him.”

What…? “Why?” I ask, bewildered.

“I thought it’d make things a little more interesting,” Rikizou shrugs. “In any case, doesn’t that mean we know our killer?”

“I-it wasn’t me!” Becca insists.

“Give it up,” Reichiru says. “You’re the only one without an alibi and we know it wasn’t a suicide. You killed Osami, at least.”

Becca pauses, looking frustrated before speaking. “Fine, I… I killed Osami,” she admits. “I didn’t kill Olivia, though! That’s who we’re looking for, right? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have killed him, but we need to find Olivia’s killer here!”

“It’s still likely that Osami’s killer is Olivia’s killer,” Toka states.

“I didn’t kill her, I had no reason to!” Becca defends.

“You had no reason to kill Osami,” Rikizou counters, “Unless we’re right. The only reason you could have would be to prevent him from contacting your first victim and exposing your crime.”

“I didn’t kill Olivia…” She looks frustrated.

She’s lying… I want to trust her. She’s been a good friend ever since we got here. I didn’t expect to get this close with her, but we ended up pretty good friends. I don’t want to do this to her, but I can’t deny the truth. I can’t let the rest of us die just to let her live…

“That’s wrong,” I finally speak. “You’re lying about not having a reason to kill Olivia.”

“...What?” Becca stares at me. The betrayal in her expression makes this even worse, but there’s no going back now.

“You suspected Olivia of being an alien because of her makeup abilities. You believed that was an example of alien disguise techniques,” I explain. “You believed that she might be the one behind this killing game.”

“No… I wouldn’t have done that! I couldn’t…” Becca looks like she’s starting to panic. “I WOULDN’T KILL SOMEONE!! I wouldn’t even know HOW to, look at all the stuff this killer did! They clearly planned it out--how would _I_ know how to do that!?”

“We don’t know about your past,” Rikizou states. “You could be just as much of a killer as Toka and we wouldn’t know. I haven’t found any points towards that, besides the likelihood of you killing Olivia and Osami, but it is possible.”

“You’d need some solid evidence to prove your innocence,” Reichiru says.

Becca stares at me, a desperate look in her eyes as if pleading me to help her out. I frown and shake my head.

“Why…” She mutters. A short silence follows.

“Maybe… we should look at this case from start to finish,” I suggest.

“It all started yesterday, at some point before the dining hall was locked in the evening. The killer likely stole a kitchen knife and kept it on them until the morning. This is just part of the planning they put into their elaborate crime. They also asked a Monomaid for a disposable rain poncho, due to the bloody nature of their planned method of murder.  
This morning, when Olivia was alone in the dressing room, the killer, wearing the rain poncho and likely a stolen pair of Osami’s shoes, snuck up behind her and slit her throat. In this process, a container of fake blood tipped over on the floor and spilled, mixing with her real blood as she bled to death.  
The killer left the bloody pair of shoes in the dressing room before heading down to the ground floor of the hotel. With some time to spare, they hid in the pool hallway until the morning announcement. Despite being careful, hiding there with a bloody knife and poncho caused a couple drops to fall on the floor.  
Once the dining hall opened for the morning, the killer snuck through into the kitchen and disposed of the poncho. They washed the knife, removing evidence of the murder weapon.  
Even with the rain poncho on, their method was so bloody that some got onto their clothes. They took off their bloody clothes and used salt and cold water from the sink to remove the blood stains.  
While the salt mixture took out the blood, the killer used their chance to eat for the first time in days, knowing the rule was no longer in place due to their crime. They accidentally left some crumbs behind on the counter.  
Once the blood stain removal was finished, the killer rinsed off their clothes and left the kitchen before hiding them somewhere to be properly washed later.  
Later in the morning, Olivia’s body was found. Once everyone had gathered, the killer blended in with the group, pretending to be as hungry as everyone else. They joined when everyone gathered for the feast.  
Sitting at the same table as Osami, the killer heard his plan to contact Olivia’s spirit. This is when they planned their second crime. They had already planned to ‘accidentally’ spill food on themselves to have an excuse to wash their clothes, but with their change of plans, they had a time limit. They made sure to leave before Osami and snuck into his room to wait for him.  
When Osami came into his room, he collected some items he needed to attempt channeling Olivia’s spirit. Before he could leave, the killer snuck up behind him and snapped his neck. They fled the scene, now back on track with bringing their clothes to the laundry room.  
Unbeknownst to them, Rikizou found Osami’s body and hung it up to frame it as a suicide, making the crime more complex.  
The culprit who murdered both Olivia and Osami this morning is definitely… Becca Bryant, the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist.”

“ _Why…_ ” Becca repeats, almost whispering.

“Isn’t that what we should be asking you?” Rikizou asks. “Why did you murder two innocent people this morning?”

Becca remains silent and no one else says a word.

“Time to vote!” Monokuma breaks the silence. “Didja figure it out? Guess we’ll know soon! Now then, use the lever in front of you to make your selection! Who will be chosen as the blackened?”

It’s really come to this… I select Becca as my vote. I don’t want her to die, but I can’t ignore the truth in a situation like this.

Once everyone has voted, the slot machine appears on the dome screen. All three faces land on Becca.

“Right again! The blackened in this case, the one who killed Olivia Kuroda and also happened to kill Osami Shimizu, is none other than Becca Bryant!”

Everyone stares at Becca but she doesn’t say a word.

“Care to explain yourself?” Rikizou prompts her.

“I… I did what I had to do,” she answers in a serious tone.

“What?” Chiho asks.

“It’s just like Jinshi said, Olivia was an alien! I was sure she was behind this, but when she died and we couldn’t leave, I figured out there must be more… Then I thought Osami might be an alien too, with his powers to contact the dead, so I had to kill him too! He just gave me a good chance when he went to his room by himself,” Becca explains. “It’s not like this is the first time I’ve done this. I’ve had to protect myself from aliens before! Remember, Jinshi? I told you about it, my whole family was taken over! I had to take them out before they could replace me too!”

“Take them out…” Is she saying what I think she’s saying?

“You murdered your whole family because you thought they were aliens?” Rikizou asks, smirking and laughing a little.

“This is serious! They were gonna kill me, replace me--my half-sister, they were raising her to take my place. I had to kill her too,” she continues. “I don’t feel bad about it, they were evil aliens trying to destroy my family. They succeeded in that, I’m the only one left, but I found Aki and Rei! They understood, they did the same thing!”

“They what?” Chiho widens her eyes in shock.

“Well, I guess I did more than them… but they both also killed their own parents,” Becca clarifies. “I never knew them, but I’m pretty sure their parents were aliens too, based on what they told me. I knew if we could all get out of those situations, get away from the aliens trying to kill us, then we could work together to stop them from taking over the rest of Earth… but now they’re gone. I need to do it on my own, I was gonna get out of here alive and take down the aliens behind this on my own, I was gonna… I need to… but you already voted, so I can’t anymore…” She starts to cry a little as she speaks.

“I suppose her past experience killing explains how this crime was so well thought-out,” Reichiru notes.

“Upupu! Are you done now? At least that backstory was interesting!” Monokuma interrupts the conversation.

“I… I CAN’T DIE HERE!!” Becca leans over her podium and shouts.

“Now then! I’ve prepared a very special punishment for Becca Bryant, the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist!”

“ _NO!!!_ ” Becca desperately screams. It hurts to watch.

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s… PUNISHMENT TIIIME!!” A bright red button appears in front of Monokuma, and he swings a gavol down to hit it.

Despite her struggling, the white Monomaid manages to drag Becca off to her execution.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _tiny blades cutting into skin, frying/burning to death_

_SUPER-SARGASSO SLAUGHTER_

_Becca is placed amidst a cornfield. Realizing that her execution has started, she desperately tries to run between the stalks of corn, looking for an escape. She makes it out into a clearing, realizing a large circular section of the field has been flattened to the ground._

_Something with bright, flashing lights catches her eye from above. It’s revealed to be a UFO, piloted by Monokuma. A wide, ice blue beam shoots directly downwards, not far from where Becca stands. She immediately dodges out of the way and runs between the corn stalks._

_Too short to see over the corn, Becca can’t easily find an escape. She continues to run, hearing the hum of the beam behind her wherever she goes. Nonetheless, she desperately continues running forwards._

_She enters a different section of corn, these plants unusual for the fact that they have sharp thorns scraping against her arms and legs as she runs. She finds that they’re not thorns but rather small metal blades, slicing up her clothes and cutting into her skin. She’s bleeding and desperately looking for a way out of the corn._

_Becca escapes into another crop circle. She pauses, taking a deep breath and noticing the UFO isn’t behind her anymore. She stays where she is, cautious, looking for where it went. A laser shoots from behind her, grazing her arm, and she quickly turns around to see where it came from. The UFO is once again above her, beam shooting down and approaching her accompanied by lasers aimed directly at her._

_Tired from running and starting to move slower, Becca heads back for the corn, not losing determination to find an escape. Before she can hide, the beam catches her and begins lifting her into the air._

_She screams for help and flails her limbs around, trying to escape the beam’s grasp. It’s no use, she’s stuck and slowly rising into the air approaching the UFO._

_Suddenly, the beam’s colour changes from ice blue to an orange-red hue, frying her entire body on the spot. A few seconds later, the beam shuts off and her charred, lifeless body falls to the ground._

_Becca Bryant, the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist, is dead._

I stare blankly at the screen, struggling to process any of this.

She’s dead… she killed Olivia and Osami… and she’s killed before.

I need to lie down…

Once I’ve processed enough to be able to move my body, I head for the elevator and leave the roof with the others.


	17. Chapter 3: Post-Trial

Immediately after the trial, I go back to my room and crash on the bed. My mind is racing. Olivia died… then Osami… and then Becca. The amount of death I’ve seen in this place has nearly doubled in just one day.

I guess I still don’t fully believe it because I find myself rereading over the two Monokuma files from this morning on my Monopad. I’d been spending so much time with all three of them just recently… How are they gone, just like that?

Toka, Reichiru, Chiho, Rikizou, and me. There’s only five of us here now. It… doesn’t feel real. None of this feels real…

I end up lying there for hours, running through the events of the day in my head. I’m reminded of my lack of eating for the past few days besides the feast this morning when my stomach grumbles. I drag myself out of bed and leave the room.

Dead tired, I walk onto the elevator and select the ground floor. I walk through the lobby and into the banquet hall.

“Good evening, Jinshi,” Rikizou greets me, sitting alone at a table.

“Evening…” I guess there’s no point in ignoring him. I approach his table and sit down before ordering from the Monomaid.

“Don’t you think it was interesting how much thought Becca put into her crime? She even removed the blood from her clothes and created a reason to do laundry,” Rikizou remarks.

I wordlessly start eating my food when the Monomaid brings it to me.

“It’s almost inspiring, don’t you think? Like the next killer could learn from her mistakes, maybe even get away with their crime.”

I look at him, tired. Tired of this, tired of him, tired of this goddamn hotel. Tired of all the death. Too tired to even try to be hopeful anymore…

“Not a fan of discussing murders?” Rikizou asks as if he doesn’t already know the answer.

“I think you’re the only one here who is,” I reply.

“Toka seems to enjoy it, as it gives him a chance to make use of his talent without committing murder. Strange that the Ultimate Hitman doesn’t like killing, isn’t it?”

“It’s not strange,” I defend Toka. “We don’t choose what we’re talented at. He just happened to be talented at something he hates doing, so he got a title he doesn’t want.”

“Fair enough,” Rikizou admits. “I’d say I’m definitely proud of my ultimate talent.”

He’s the Ultimate Violinist… I haven’t ever heard him play. Does he even have a violin here? If it’s not the talent item in his room, I’d think it’d be small enough for him to ask a Monomaid for…

“Goodnight, Jinshi,” Rikizou says after handing his plate off to the Monomaid and standing up. “Maybe we can look at the new entertainment floor together tomorrow.” He pats my shoulder before leaving the banquet hall.

I finish my meal alone, too tired to think. I go back to my room, take a shower, and head to bed. I hear the nighttime announcement play as I’m drifting off to sleep.

…

“They really hate this place, don’t they…” The Mastermind watches everyone wind down after the trial on their screens.

“I guess that means I’m doing something right, doesn’t it?” They speak to their Monokuma plush. “I wonder… I wonder if they’ll be able to figure out who I am… I wonder how much these murders have set them off track.”

The Mastermind leans back in their chair, gazing up at the screens. “Though, with the next motive I have in mind… I wonder if anyone will take me up on my offer?”


	18. Chapter 4: Day 1

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I’m… not particularly tired, but I don’t want to move. I stay where I am, plagued with thoughts of all the deaths I’ve witnessed. I don’t know what to do…

After about an hour, I decide lying here isn’t gonna do me any good. I sit up and take out my Monopad. Just like the last times… A new entertainment floor with two new rooms has appeared on the map. There’s a music room and a games room… I’ll look at those later.

I get dressed, leave my room, and take the elevator down to the ground floor by myself. Reichiru is in the dining hall eating cereal when I get there. I wave to her as I pass through and she waves back. I grab some cereal for myself and go back to the dining hall to sit with her.

“Morning,” she greets between bites.

“Morning…” I don’t know what else to say. Now that I think about it, she didn’t seem to mind this place that much even after people started dying… She’s not as bad about it as Rikizou, though. She’s actually tried to help us come up with ideas on how to get out.

“You’re thinking about me,” she states.

“Um, yeah… I tend to think about people when I see them,” I explain. That’s not weird, right?

“What’s on your mind?” She asks.

“Uh…” How am I supposed to answer that? “Just… wondering how you’re doing after everything yesterday, I guess.”

“It was a lot to take in,” she answers. “I’m holding up alright, but I believe there’s a risk in staying here much longer. The more people die, the higher the risk that I’ll die. I’d rather not die yet.”

The way she says that sounds kinda selfish… It sounds like she’d be fine with getting out of here on her own. Another murder is bound to happen… She won’t kill, will she? I don’t know if I have the energy to care anymore.

“How about you?” She interrupts my thoughts.

“Oh, uh…” I lost three friends in one day. I don’t think I’m any form of okay right now… “I… I’m not doing great.” That’s an understatement, but it’s not wrong.

“Understandable.” Reichiru finishes her cereal and stands up. “Goodbye.” She leaves the room as the orange Monomaid comes in to get her bowl.

“Bye,” I say as she leaves. I think I can trust her… I don’t know anything at this point. I feel like I’m getting to the point of acceptance that I’ll die here one way or another, so I don’t know how much I care.

When I’m finished my own cereal, I take the elevator up to the third entertainment floor. I notice two things immediately; there’s a new Monomaid standing in front of me, this one half purple, and I can hear music. I pause to listen for a moment. It’s coming from the music room.

I step off the elevator and into the hallway, approaching the door. It sounds like… violin. There’s something calming about it… It sounds peaceful, soft, almost hopeful. I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I listen. It helps me forget the situation for a moment.

Suddenly, it stops. My eyes shoot open and I hear footsteps approach the door.

“Were you planning on coming inside?” Rikizou peeks his head out the door of the music room.

“O-oh, yeah… I got distracted,” I respond before stepping towards the door.

“Distracted by my playing?” He asks, gesturing to the violin he’s holding.

“Uh, yeah… You’re really good,” I compliment.

“Thank you. It is my ultimate talent, after all.” He smiles and steps aside so I can enter the room.

The room is full of musical instruments. Pretty much what I expected. I don’t know how to play any of these, some of them I don’t even recognize… There’s sheet music stands and chairs set up on one side of the room. One stand has an open book on it… Maybe Rikizou was playing there.

“So… I was wondering,” I turn to face Rikizou. “I’d guess your talent item wasn’t a violin, since I haven’t heard you play before. It’s a small enough instrument that a Monomaid would’ve been able to bring you one, so why didn’t you ask for one before?”

“I didn’t feel the need to,” Rikizou answers. “I enjoy playing, but I can live without it. Besides, once I knew these floors opened up after each murder case, I figured there would be a room like this one eventually.”

He… he was fine with waiting for murder to be able to play the violin? I guess that’s not much of a surprise considering how he is as a person, but it still doesn’t feel right. I decide not to mention it and think of something else.

“If the talent item in your room wasn’t a violin, then… what was it?”

“This.” Rikizou walks to the music stand containing a book of sheet music and picks it up. Looking at it now, it looks… homemade.

“What is that?” I walk over to him.

“Sheet music,” he answers plainly.

“No, I mean--”

“I know what you mean,” he smirks. “It’s a book of several of my favourite pieces to play. My siblings put it together for my birthday,” he explains.

“Siblings?” I guess we all have family outside of here, but I never really thought about his… I wonder what they’re like. Hopefully not much like him…

“Yes, I have siblings. Seven of them, to be precise.”

“Seven!?” How big is his family? I have one sibling…

“Eight of us altogether, though I was adopted around the time my sibling Hikoto was born. I was three years old,” he explains.

So he was adopted… I’m learning more about his past in this single conversation than I ever have before. I guess I’ve never really asked, though.

“Are you the only ultimate in your family?” Hearing about the sheer amount of siblings he has makes me curious about them. There’s so many questions bouncing around in my head, I don’t even know which ones to ask…

“No,” he answers. “My younger sister, Ayao, is the Ultimate Mathematician. Our parents have been helping the youngest twins try out as many activities as they can to find out if there’s any more talent in the family.”

Ayao… Ayao Nishida. That name sounds vaguely familiar. Is there any way I could’ve known Rikizou’s sister…?

“Why the sudden interest in my family?” He asks.

“Oh, uh… I dunno, I guess I just never asked so now I’m curious.” I decide to stop interrogating him about his family for now and walk around the room a little.

A moment later, he begins to play another song. This time, I watch him. He looks relaxed… it’s a different song from before, but it has a similar feeling to it. How can someone like Rikizou produce a sound so soothing, so hopeful… so beautiful?

My mind wanders to what he did yesterday. He messed with the crime scene, moving Osami’s corpse for no reason… The thought bothers me, but I decide not to bring it up. I don’t want to think about yesterday at all.

When he finishes the song, I applaud him. It feels like the appropriate thing to do. He stands up and puts the violin away before approaching me.

“I’m going to see the other room on this floor. Did you want to stick around here, or would you like to join me?”

“I’ll come,” I say. I don’t think there’s anything else here for me to see… and Rikizou has been pretty tolerable this morning. It’s strange, but I don’t mind it. We leave the music room and cross the hallway into the games room.

There are shelves lining the walls full of board games, card games… basically anything tabletop. There’s a large table in the center of the room with five chairs. That makes me think of the number of seats in the theatre matching the number of people alive at that point…

How could the Mastermind have known the last case would take three lives?

“Interesting room,” Rikizou comments, snapping me out of my thoughts. He’s standing next to a shelf of card games, taking a look at them.

“Yeah…” Should I mention what I noticed? “Hey, Rikizou. Remember on the first entertainment floor, the movie theatre had ten seats. We unlocked it after two people died, so there were ten people alive… There's five chairs here, and five of us left. Do you think the Mastermind knew the last case would have two victims?”

“Nice observation. It’s possible, but the Mastermind likely has access to the entire hotel. Unlike the movie theatre, these chairs aren’t fixed in their positions. They could’ve taken an extra chair away once they knew only five of us would survive to this point. Or, they could’ve accounted for Chiho’s wheelchair, considering these seats are approximately the same height as hers and she wouldn’t need to move herself into one to sit at this table,” he explains.

“Oh… that’s right.” Maybe I’m overthinking things… Even if I’m close to giving up hope, I still desperately want to find hints about the Mastermind.

After looking around the room for a bit, I take a seat at the table. There’s so much going on in my mind, I just want to go back to sleep…

“Hey,” Toka’s voice catches my attention. Did he just get here…?

“Hi…” I respond as he sits down across the table from me.

“Oh, Toka! I was meaning to talk to you,” Rikizou crosses the room to approach us.

“What?” Toka looks like he doesn’t want to talk to Rikizou, for understandable reasons.

“I wanted to apologize for revealing your talent to everyone. I know you were trying to keep it a secret to avoid suspicion, but the longer you hide something like that, the more suspicious it becomes… It would’ve come out eventually regardless, and I believe it’s important for everyone to know. I knew you wouldn’t say it yourself, so I took it upon myself, and I apologize for that.” Well that started out strong but got worse as he continued…

“Are you really sorry, though?” Toka asks, disbelieving his apology. “Do you regret what you did or do you just wanna seem like a nice person now?”

“I don’t regret it, if I know of a killer in our presence, then I feel it important to share that information with the group. I didn’t have a choice, really, you’re far too stubborn to have revealed it yourself.”

“Then why won’t you tell us who the fucking Mastermind is?” Toka spits his words like venom, standing as he speaks. “Assuming you do actually know, that is.”

“Didn’t I tell you? They intimidate me. You don’t. You could kill me. Death is inevitable. The Mastermind has the power to keep us all here and knows how to motivate us to kill one another. Who knows what kinds of torture they have in store for someone who reveals their identity?” Rikizou remains calm as he speaks.

Toka glares at him, speechless. After a moment, he sighs and sits back down. “I don’t accept your ‘apology’.”

“Fine, then. That’s your choice.” Rikizou leaves the room.

“Can’t fucking stand that guy,” Toka mutters once he’s left.

“I can’t quite figure him out…” He was so nice to me this morning, we were able to have a normal conversation. Why did he feel the need to provoke Toka like that?

“Whatever. We don’t need his help, there’s still four of us that can work together to find a way out of this place.”

A way out… I’m starting to doubt that’s even possible.

“What’s wrong?” Toka asks, seeming to have calmed down since Rikizou left.

“How are you still so focused on that? So many of us… are gone… it’s hard to tell if it’s worth trying anymore.” I don’t like talking so hopeless, but I feel like I can be honest with him. “I’m probably gonna die here…” 

“Hey, no.” Toka reaches across the table and rests a hand on my shoulder. “Is that what you want? To die in here?”

“No… I want to get out alive,” I admit. “But what’s the point in hoping for something that won’t happen?”

“The only reason it’s not happening is ‘cause we’re not trying hard enough. If you give up like that, then yes, you’ll die here. We can’t give up now, no one else is gonna die here.”

“That’s what we thought before, but now three more people are gone. Three more of our friends…” I can’t stop thinking about all the time I’d spent with them recently, not knowing it would be some of my last moments with them.

“That’s why we have to focus now more than ever. If the Mastermind continues the pattern, we’ve got two more days until the next motive. We need to do what we can in that time in case the next motive threatens our lives,” Toka explains.

He’s really determined… I don’t know if I can match that level of motivation. It’s hard to be hopeful anymore. I don’t know what to say…

“Hey.” I look up when I hear Toka’s voice again. “Take it easy today. Mourn their deaths, rest for a bit. Tomorrow, we can all meet up and talk about what we know. Without Rikizou, this time. He’d just turn it into conflict…” Toka shakes his head and sighs. “I know this is hard. That’s pretty much the whole point. But you’re strong, I know you can get through it.”

There’s something convincing about his tone. He always talks about his younger sibling… it sounds like he’s a good brother.

“Okay,” I agree. “Let’s meet tomorrow.”

“How’s the library at noon sound? I can tell Reichiru and Chiho.”

“Sounds good,” I confirm.

He gives me one more pat on the shoulder before leaving.

I stay where I’m sitting for a while longer. Is there really a way out of all this without anyone else dying…? What would happen to the Mastermind? Is the Mastermind one of us? I don’t want to suspect anyone… I don’t want to be here.

I decide I’ve been in one place for too long and I leave the games room. I’d like to step outside and get some fresh air, but that’s pretty much impossible… I head to the library instead.

It feels strange to walk in here and not see Osami sitting on a couch, totally immersed in whatever he’s reading. I shake it off and start searching for a book. Reading isn’t really my thing most of the time, but… I find the book I’m looking for.

‘Duchess of the Light’ by Hitomi Takara. The book the Monomaid gave Osami before this library was open, the one he said his cousin told him about. I wonder if he was close with his cousin, and how they’re doing…

I sit down and start to read. The way it’s written catches my interest immediately. The author is really talented… Reading this book feels like a way to honour her as well as Osami, now that they’re both gone. Besides that, I thoroughly enjoy the storyline and find myself unable to stop. I spend the entire afternoon reading until I’m finished.

I put the book down and become aware of my surroundings once again. That hopeless feeling is back… At least I was able to distract myself for a while. I stand up and leave the library.

I make my way down to the ground floor and enter the banquet hall. No one’s there, so I eat alone. When I’m finished my meal I go back to my room, shower, and head to bed.


	19. Chapter 4: Day 2

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I manage to get up pretty quickly after the morning announcement. I still have a while until the meeting… Not hungry yet, I hang out in my room for a little while observing the scene through the window.

Osami was the one who told me about these outside scenes being a loop. Thinking about it again, it makes me wonder what time it really is. I’ve gotten used to the sleep schedule I’ve developed in my time here, but how do I know if the time on the clocks is real? It could be midnight, pitch black outside, for all I know. Or it could just be the same time as it is now. I’ve thought about this before, but it’s still so strange. I can’t help but wonder…

I wonder what the real outside world is like right now. I only remember things here and there… I wish I could remember more about the awful event that happened, or the organization I was with for a while. It’s frustrating that the only thing I’m certain about is what I’ve experienced inside this hotel.

I end up leaving my room after about half an hour and I take the elevator down to the ground floor. Chiho is alone in the dining hall when I arrive.

“Good morning,” she greets. She has toast and a glass of orange juice in front of her.

“Morning,” I respond as I pass through into the kitchen. I grab a bowl of cereal like yesterday, and walk back out to sit with her.

“Toka said we’re meeting today,” Chiho mentions. “Do you think anyone has any idea how to get out of this place?”

“I honestly don’t know,” I respond. “I definitely don’t. I’m pretty close to giving up, but I don’t think Toka will let me.” I give a light laugh.

“I’ve already given up, pretty much.” She gives a sad smile. “Toka and I have had our disagreements. I don’t think he’d be able to convince me all that much.”

“Chiho… if you won’t let Toka give you hope, then let me. You’ll get out of here alive, I know you will.” I’m not sure of this at all… I’m partially convinced we’ll _all_ die here. That when we’re given just a little hope, the Mastermind will crush it down to nothing and kill us on the spot. But… I can’t stand to see her like this.

“We’ll see.” She continues eating her breakfast. I think she can tell how uncertain I am, but I hope she appreciates my attempt.

I finish my breakfast and hand my bowl off to the Monomaid, but don’t leave yet. Chiho stays where she is, too. I want to get closer with her… she seems like she’d be an amazing friend.

“What would you do if you could get out of here right now, no strings attached?” I ask.

“That’s impossi--”

“I don’t care if it’s possible,” I interrupt her. “Just imagine. If you could leave this place right now, what would you do? Where would you go? Who would you look for?”

She pauses for a moment, looking down at her lap. “My family… I want to go back to my family. My mom taught me how to bake,” she explains. “She’d never admit it but I know she got kinda jealous when I ended up better than her, earning myself an ultimate title.” She smiles at the memory. “And… my dog, Yori. She’s a labrador retriever. We got her as a mobility assistance dog, because of…” she gestures to her wheelchair. “Y’know. But now she’s like my best friend. I miss her… I hope mom’s taking good care of her for me.”

“I’m sure she is,” I smile.

She gives a sad smile back and tears fill her eyes. “I’m gonna die here and never see them again, aren’t I?” Her smile fades as she speaks.

I shake my head and stand up, walking towards her. I wordlessly lean down and give her a hug. She hugs back.

“We’re gonna be alright.” I know my words are full of shit and she probably knows too, but she hugs back a little tighter. A moment later, I pull away.

“It’s almost noon,” she says, looking at the clock and wiping away her tears.

“Yeah. We should head to the library,” I suggest.

She nods then pauses for a moment. “Thank you, Jinshi. And… sorry for crying all of a sudden.”

“It’s fine,” I reassure her.

She nods again. “Let’s go.” We leave the dining hall and take the elevator up to the second entertainment floor.

Toka and Reichiru are already in the library when we get there. They’re sitting across from each other, moving their hands and arms around… It takes me a moment to realize they’re communicating in sign language.

“Hey,” I greet them to get their attention.

“Oh, hey Jinshi, Chiho,” Toka greets us.

“Didn’t know you knew sign language, either of you,” I comment as I sit down.

“My sibling was born mute, so I’ve learned it with them growing up,” Toka explains.

I nod in acknowledgement. I look at Reichiru. Looks like she’s not providing any explanation about why she learned it… doesn’t really matter I guess.

“Any of you have any ideas for getting out of here?” Chiho asks.

“I still think our best bet is that door in the basement,” Toka says.

“Yeah, but how are we supposed to know if it’s opened?” Chiho asks

“If it comes down to it, I’d be willing to wait in the basement and keep watch,” Reichiru offers.

“That’s still not a very solid plan…” I say. “How are we supposed to know it’ll ever open?”

“Jinshi’s right,” Chiho backs me up. “If it’s only opened once before and for such a short amount of time, I don’t think the Mastermind would open it again. Especially if they know we’re watching it. And look at all these cameras, they’re probably watching us right now.”

“Do you have anything better?” Toka counters. “The closest thing we have to proof of where the Mastermind might be is the existence of that room. We need some way in, and we can’t open that door.”

“What if the Mastermind has a secret passage?” I suggest.

“A secret passage?” Reichiru repeats. “That would be smart. If they created the illusion that the room in the basement could only be entered through that door, then they could use their secret passage freely.”

“Exactly,” I confirm her understanding of my suggestion. I’m almost starting to feel hopeful about this when I remember… “Is it really such a good idea to find the Mastermind, though?”

“What?” Toka asks.

“They could kill us,” I state. “Or, like Rikizou said yesterday… he was intimidated by them because they could probably torture us worse than death. What if this is designed so that we find them and then have our last bit of hope crushed when we can’t get out?”

“So you wish to find a way out without unmasking the Mastermind,” Reichiru says.

“Yeah, kind of… I mean, I wanna know who did all this so they can be put in jail or something, but not until we’re out. Toka, if you want me to stay hopeful, then I don’t wanna risk my life for much longer.”

“That’s fair. We need to think of some way out…” Toka sighs, looking deep in thought.

“We can’t open any windows or doors…” Chiho thinks aloud. “Would we be able to break something like that open?”

“Nope. Watched Olivia try once,” Toka shuts down her suggestion. “Plus, going through a window would count as leaving and break Rule Number 1.”

I take out my Monopad to check the rule he’s talking about. ‘Rule #1: You may only reside within the hotel. Leaving the hotel is an unacceptable use of time.’ The way it’s phrased makes it hard to think of a way out of here… Is there a way to get out without ‘leaving’?

“What’s on your mind?” Toka reads me like a book once again.

“Ah, just… thinking about that rule,” I explain. “I’m trying to figure out if we can twist the phrasing into something that could let us out of here. Is it possible to get out in a way that wouldn’t be considered ‘leaving’?”

Toka thinks for a moment, processing the question. It looks like Chiho and Reichiru are thinking about it too…

“If we were taken,” Reichiru says. “If we could open up a door, window, or the dome on the roof, and someone or something pulled us out against our will. For example, if the dome on the roof were open and a helicopter came to collect us. We would have to play it out carefully… I think willingly climbing the ladder would count as leaving, but being caught and pulled up would not.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Chiho nods. “Anyone know how we can do that?”

Silence again. At least for the door in the basement, we’d seen it open before… It’s not the same for the dome.

“We don’t even know if the dome _can_ open… and we have no way to contact anyone on the outside to get a helicopter here. We don’t even know where ‘here’ is,” I explain.

“Then we need to find out,” Toka says, determined. “We need to look for any clues we can find about the dome being able to open up. Let’s meet back here, same time tomorrow.”

“We’ve met several times and we’re still not out of here,” Chiho refutes. “What if the next motive doesn’t even let us meet up like this again?”

“Chiho,” I say before Toka can respond. “We need to work together. I know it’s frustrating, but… in all honesty, I don’t want to die here. I’m done sitting around and waiting for it to happen. We need to do something before it’s too late. Any idea is better than nothing, so I think we should pursue this. Why don’t we look together and see if we can find anything?”

Chiho pauses for a moment, glancing at the other two before looking back to me. “Fine.”

“Reichiru, let’s search together,” Toka suggests. Reichiru nods and the two leave the library. Once again, I’m alone with Chiho.

“I admire his determination,” Chiho comments once they’ve left.

“Toka?” I ask.

“Yeah. Maybe I’ve been a little rude towards him… I still don’t think I could ever forgive someone for murder, but I might let him explain a little.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” I say. Toka is definitely a good person. I understand assuming the opposite after hearing a talent like ‘Ultimate Hitman’, but he’s definitely proved himself good in my eyes.

“So. Where should we go?” Chiho asks. “We can’t get to the roof unless there’s a trial.”

“You’re right…” I guess I don’t really know where we could even look for clues. “Maybe… we can look around in here, for any books that might tell us about the hotel, where we are, or… large screen setups? Might have something about a dome shape like the one on the roof. I dunno, there’s a lot of non-fiction here… might have something useful.” I wander to the side of the library where I noticed some of those sorts of books.

“That works, I guess. Better than nothing,” Chiho says as she comes over to where I’m looking.

We spend the afternoon searching the entire non-fiction section of the library. Any books about vaguely relevant topics end up overall unhelpful. It feels a little like time wasted, but I manage to convince myself it was better than sitting around doing nothing.

“Can we go eat now?” Chiho asks, rolling towards the door.

“Yeah, I’m hungry too,” I agree. We leave the library and take the elevator down to the ground floor.

When we enter the banquet hall, Rikizou is sitting on his own. He’s already waving me over pretty much the second I get there. I reluctantly decide to sit with him, and Chiho follows.

“I heard you all had another meeting without me to discuss escaping the hotel,” Rikizou comments. “I suppose I’ve done enough to land myself a spot as an outcast among the group.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Chiho confirms.

“Fair enough,” Rikizou chuckles at her bluntness. “Care to catch me up on what you discussed?”

Chiho ignores him and starts to eat the food she ordered, so I take it upon myself to answer. “We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way out of here without confronting the Mastermind.”

“Why?” Rikizou asks. “The Mastermind is the only one of us that absolutely knows a way out of here.”

“You said yourself that they intimidate you,” I point out. “I don’t want to risk my life anymore. We’re trying to bend the rules in a way that gets us out of here without breaking one.”

“Fair enough. You really want to survive with everyone, don’t you?” Rikizou leans on the table with his hand on his chin.

“Yeah. That’s what I’ve wanted this whole time,” I answer. “I hate how long it’s taking and how many lives we’ve lost, but I won’t let anyone else die.”

“Good luck with that,” Rikizou smirks. “The next motive should be introduced tomorrow. Everyone will be on edge after that, and someone’s bound to kill for it. That’s how this game works, it gives you just enough time between murders to regain hope that no one else will die before crushing it with yet another body discovery.”

“I don’t wanna play a game like that,” Chiho states. “It’s hard to have any hope left, but I’m trying, so can you please _not_ try to shut that down all the time?”

“I’m just stating the facts about the game. But if that bothers you, if you’d rather ignore your surroundings and hope to somehow find a way out, then I’ll leave you be.” Rikizou takes the last bite of his meal and hands his plate off to the Monomaid before leaving the banquet hall.

“We will end this killing game,” I reassure Chiho. “We’ll live to walk out of this place.” My eyes widen as I realize what I said. “Or, uh, I mean…”

“Roll out, in my case,” she giggles.

“Y-yeah,” I smile. At least she has a good attitude about it.

We finish dinner and leave the banquet hall, parting ways on the elevator. I head back to my room on the second guest floor.

I take a shower before heading out to the main area of my room and sitting down on the bed. I take a moment to think as I dry my hair.

Right now, I’m holding onto the little bit of hope I have left. I know the next motive is tomorrow, but… we can’t give up here. I’ll make sure no one is considering killing for the motive, I’ll talk to everyone. And then we’ll find a way to escape.

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

That’s my cue. I return the towels to the bathroom, put on my pajamas and head to bed. I’m still a little worried about tomorrow, but… I tell myself it’ll be okay as I drift off to sleep.


	20. Chapter 4: Day 3 + 4

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I wake up immediately but don’t move. Just an hour until the motive is announced… I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to see it, experience it--I don’t want another motive.

What if there’s not a motive? What if the Mastermind got this schedule ingrained in our minds only to snatch it away after three murder cases? I would say I don’t think they’d do that, but in reality, I have no idea what kind of person they are. Besides the kind of person fucked up enough to capture twelve people and make them kill each other.

I decide I’d rather not be alone for the motive announcement, assuming it does happen. I leave my room and take the elevator down to the lobby. Everyone else is here, except Chiho.

“Hey,” Toka greets when I step off the elevator.

“The motive should be announced soon,” Reichiru states.

I nod and approach them wordlessly. I take a seat on one of the couches next to Reichiru.

The air is tense as we wait for 9am to hit. I can’t think of anything to say, and it seems neither can the others. Finally, it happens.

_“Good morning! It’s time for the motive you’ve all been waiting for! I think you’re gonna like this one! The next blackened… can skip the trial! If they admit to their crime after the body discovery announcement, they get to check out, and the remaining guests stay here to continue the killing game! No punishment! Now’s your best chance to get outta here, it’s the easiest it’s ever been and you’ll only have your single victim’s blood on your hands! Upupupu, happy killing!”_

“No trial… and no punishment,” Reichiru repeats.

“It seems now would be the chance you’re looking for,” Rikizou says. “Just one more death and you can send someone out to bring help.”

“We can’t lose anyone else,” I shut him down.

“Why not? You’ve already lost so many, you should be used to it by now,” Rikizou continues. “In fact, I think we’re all well aware that I’m the least inclined to leave this place. Why not kill me?”

I stare at him in shock. How can he say something like that…?

“It would be the most logical course of action,” Reichiru admits. “However, I don’t think we should take him up on the offer. Rikizou claims to know who the Mastermind is. Even if he refuses to tell us, I think that’s an important piece of information. As well… no one wants to experience another death.”

“Your choice.” Rikizou stands up. “I’ll be in my room, if anyone wants to find me and kill me.” He crosses the lobby and leaves on the elevator.

“As much as I hate that guy, I agree,” Toka says. “We shouldn’t kill him.”

I stare after him at the closed elevator doors, thinking about what he said. Why is he talking like that…

“You coming?” I’m snapped out of my thoughts by Toka, who looks to be heading for the dining hall.

“Oh… sorry, kinda zoned out for a bit. Are we getting breakfast?”

“Yeah. C’mon,” he beckons me across the lobby and I stand up to follow him.

With help from the orange Monomaid, Reichiru makes eggs for the three of us. Toka and I thank her and we eat together. There’s not much conversation going on, but I still can’t really focus on it…

My mind wanders back to Rikizou. I feel like I should try to convince him to get out with us, but I don’t know if I’d be able to make him want something he doesn’t seem to care much about.

After I’m done eating, I hand my plate to the Monomaid and stand up. “I’m gonna go check on Rikizou… I won’t kill him, you guys can trust me.”

“Be careful,” Toka warns. “He could be playing up the act and planning to kill someone, get out on his own, and not get us help.”

I don’t think he’d do that, but… “I will,” I reassure Toka before I leave.

I take the elevator up to the second guest floor and approach the door across from mine. I lift my hand and knock. Rikizou answers within seconds.

“You know, knocking isn’t a very good way of sneaking up on someone you’re planning to kill.”

“I’m not here to kill you,” I state.

“Why not?” He tilts his head, feigning curiosity.

I glare at him and sigh.

“Fine, fine. Come in.” He opens the door wider and steps aside so I can enter.

“If not to kill me, why are you here?” He asks.

“I was just… thinking about what you said.” I turn around to face him. “Are you really okay with dying here? You told me about your family just recently, don’t you want to go back to them?”

“Sure I do,” he answers. “Death can’t be avoided. I could die in this killing game, or I would die eventually outside it. Even if I do leave the hotel alive, I could get hit by a bus on my way out of here and it would all be for nothing. I’d love to see my family again, but how do I know it’ll ever happen even if we do escape?”

He’s just… not afraid of death at all. He makes a point, though…

“I don’t want you to die here,” I say, frowning.

“Really? You want me to survive this killing game?” He asks, sitting on his bed. “I’m unsure why you’d still care about me in the slightest after everything I’ve done. I’ve stirred up conflict for no reason other than my own entertainment. In the last case, I tampered with the crime scene, hanging your close friend’s corpse before it could be found by anyone else. I’ve done nothing to deserve your compassion.” His calm expression doesn’t falter as he speaks.

“That may be true, but… I don’t want to witness any more death.” I look him in the eyes with what I hope is a sincere expression.

“You really can’t stand to let just one more person die, even if it costs your prime opportunity to get help from the outside?” He leans towards me as he speaks.

“We’ll find another way,” I state, determined.

He looks at me for a moment. “You really won’t give up…”

“I can’t,” I confirm. “I can’t let the Mastermind win. This is what they want, if they’re offering an opportunity like this then they probably have control over whether the person who escapes can get help. Or they already know that they wouldn’t be able to, no matter what.”

“You’re getting smarter, Jinshi,” Rikizou compliments. “I hope none of your friends fall for the Mastermind’s trick.”

They won’t… I hope. I believe in them. I don’t know what else to say to him right now… I glance at the clock to see it’s past noon. We were gonna meet again today…

“I’m… gonna go. Don’t get yourself killed,” I say.

“I can’t make any promises,” he smirks. I decide to give up on him for now and leave the room.

I quickly make my way to the library to find the others sitting together.

“Sorry I’m late, I was talking to Rikizou,” I say as I join them.

“They told me about what he said this morning,” Chiho mentions. She’s looking at me weird. She doesn’t think… does she?

“I didn’t kill him. I talked to him about the motive, he… just doesn’t seem to fear death at all,” I explain. “Though, I thought of something while talking to him… this motive is likely a trap. The only thing specified was that someone could get out of here alive without the rest of us dying, Monokuma never mentioned anything about a way to get help. The Mastermind is probably trying to trick us with this motive when they know there’d be no way for the person who leaves to get help for the rest of us.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Toka states. “They wouldn’t make it so easy to escape if we could just get help right away.”

“So killing another person is ‘easy’?” Chiho glares at Toka.

“That’s not what I meant,” Toka defends. “I’m just saying it’s easier than it has been up to this point. Whoever kills wouldn’t need to go through a trial or worry about the rest of us dying. I still don’t plan on killing here.”

“You could be overthinking it,” Reichiru suggests. “The Mastermind could be offering a completely safe getaway, but only if we’re willing to let just one more person die. Considering the fact that most of us don’t want to witness any more death, much less kill someone ourselves, I think this is a test of how strongly we feel about that.”

“Are you saying we should take advantage of the motive?” Toka asks in an accusatory tone.

“I wouldn’t,” Reichiru states calmly. “I don’t want to kill and I don’t want to see another person die. I believe you all strongly feel the same, so none of us will kill Rikizou despite him offering to sacrifice himself. In fact, I think we’re lucky with this motive. It has only put us off our goal for about half a day. There’s no time limit on it that threatens our lives, so we have as much time as we need to come up with an escape plan.”

“You’re right,” I agree. I think I can trust everyone here. “The main thing we have to worry about now is Rikizou being annoying about the motive, I know he’s gonna keep asking us when we’ll kill him until we get out of here.” I laugh a little as I speak.

“Did either of you find anything yesterday?” Chiho asks Toka and Reichiru. That’s right, we looked through the library but didn’t find much…

“Nothing too helpful, but we got one of the windows to blue screen,” Toka answers.

“Really?” I ask. I knew they were all digital screens, but that’s still interesting…

“Yeah. Not sure what we did, and it refreshed back to the regular outside scene at the next hour loop,” he explains.

“That just makes this place feel more fake,” Chiho sighs.

“Do you think shutting down the dome screens would do anything?” I ask, trying to think of anything related that might help us escape.

“Probably not,” Reichiru answers. “The screen malfunctioning didn’t affect the window in any way. We may have to give up on the dome idea.”

“Then are we back to the door in the basement?” Chiho asks.

I’m still not sure… but if we avoid it altogether just because we’re scared of the Mastermind, we’re not gonna get anywhere. “Yeah, that might be our best bet.”

“Didn’t you wanna avoid the Mastermind?” Toka asks.

I shake my head. “It might be dangerous, but we don’t really have anything else. If we all stick together, I think we can face them.”

“So what, are we gonna camp outside the door to see if it opens?” Chiho seems unsure about going back to focusing on the door.

“As I said before, I’d be willing to do so,” Reichiru offers.

“We could take turns,” Toka suggests.

“What if we use a camera?” I ask. The others look at me, so I explain my idea further. “A standard video camera would be small enough to get from a Monomaid. We could set it up pointed at the door and watch the footage later. It doesn’t account for the existence of a secret passage, but it would help us for the door, at least.”

“That’s a good idea,” Toka agrees. “We should get that set up as soon as possible.”

Reichiru calls over the indigo Monomaid and asks for the camera. It’s given to us shortly after.

“The battery has enough power to last three hours,” Reichiru notes after turning it on.

“Can we ask for a charger?” Chiho suggests. “Or… can it film while being charged?”

“I believe it can,” Reichiru answers Chiho’s second question before calling the Monomaid back and requesting a charger.

“I think we’re good to go, then,” I say.

The four of us leave the library and take the elevator down to the basement. We set up the camera near the elevator pointed directly at the door, ensuring that the door is visible in the viewfinder. It only shows the bottom half or so, but enough to see when it’s opened and identify the legs of whoever walks into frame.

“That should do it,” Toka says after hitting record.

“What should we do now?” Chiho asks.

“Disperse,” Reichiru suggests. “Let the Mastermind have a chance to enter the room. Though, they likely won’t for a while, especially if they’ve been watching us over the surveillance cameras. We can try to leave it long enough that they forget.”

“Alright,” I agree.

The four of us get back on the elevator and I head to my room. It’s still a little nerve-wracking to be on my own with a motive active, but… I trust the others. The one I trust the least is probably Rikizou, but I don’t think he’d kill me.

I hang out in my room alone for a while. I don’t have much to do, but I’m content just sitting here with my thoughts. I finally feel like we’re getting somewhere, like the footage from that camera in the basement is gonna help us somehow. We’re gonna get out of here… I know we can do it.

It’s not until evening that I leave my room. I take the elevator down to the ground floor and head into the banquet hall. No one’s here, so I eat dinner alone before heading back to my room for the night.

As I shower, I start to have doubts about our plan. What if the camera doesn’t capture anything important? What if we’re left looking through hours of footage of a Monomaid standing in front of a door, only to find it never opened? No… that can’t be right. We’ll find something, we have to. And if we don’t, then we just need to leave it filming for a little longer.

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

I get out of the shower as the nighttime announcement plays. I dry off before heading to sleep.

…

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
_gunshot_

_Bang!_

I hear a loud sound from somewhere in the hotel. I can’t quite tell where it came from… it’s loud enough to wake me up.

Was it… no, it couldn’t be…

I’ve only heard gunshots in TV and movies, so I can’t be sure. But that’s definitely what it sounded like.

Suddenly, I realize what that could mean. I try to open my eyes, but they’re tired… I look towards the alarm clock on my nightstand. It’s… 2am? Later. The hour starts with 2, but I don’t know what time it is…

Should I get up? Would I be able to catch the killer if I do? No, it might not be safe… if they still have the gun, they could kill me. Besides, if someone killed, they’d admit to it and leave… wouldn’t they?

My mind races as I think about what just happened. Did someone just kill despite us all talking about ignoring the motive…? I guess Rikizou wasn’t in that conversation, but would he really…

I decide against leaving my room and try to go back to sleep. It doesn’t end up working all that well… I lie there for what feels like forever before giving up.

I get up and check the time. It’s a little after 3:30am now… I sit on the edge of my bed facing the window and watch the nighttime display. It’s so peaceful… I can’t stop thinking about what I heard. Am I really gonna have to find another body…? I don’t want to. I guess I don’t really get to make that choice…

I continue watching the scene for hours. I notice the hourly loop as the time passes by. I’m tired, but I don’t think I’d be able to sleep at this point, no matter how hard I try.

"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"

I guess… I should leave my room now. Did the others hear what I heard? Did anyone go check it out? Maybe I can find them and ask…

I get dressed, leave my room, and take the elevator down to the ground floor. No one’s around… I guess it is pretty soon after the announcement. I make my way into the kitchen, grab a bowl of cereal, and sit in the dining hall.

I can hardly eat. I feel sick just thinking about that gunshot from last night… Is someone hurt? Dead? If not, then what was that about?

I manage to finish my cereal and decide to check the nurse’s office. If someone got hurt but didn’t die, they’d probably be here…

When I enter the nurse’s office, everything seems normal… at first. Then, I notice it… there’s some blood on the floor. It looks like someone was trying to clean it up but missed a spot…

I hesitantly approach it. There doesn’t seem to be any dead people in here, so that’s a good sign… I decide to leave for now when something else catches my eye.

It’s more blood, but in the trash can. There’s lots of it… on paper towels. Someone must’ve cleaned up whatever bloody mess was here and disposed of the paper towels. Something definitely happened… I leave the nurse’s office to look around.

I check the rest of this floor before getting onto the elevator and heading back down to the lobby. Everyone’s gathered here now… Except Rikizou.

“Jinshi, hey,” Toka greets.

“Hey…” No one seems as alarmed as I am. Maybe they didn’t hear the gunshot…

“What’s wrong?” Chiho asks, noticing my expression.

“There’s…” Where do I even start? “I heard… last night, sometime after 2am, there was something like a gunshot,” I explain.

“I heard it too,” Reichiru states. “I didn’t think to check the time.”

“Hey, has anyone seen Rikizou?” I ask. No one responds. No…

“Should we check his room?” Toka suggests.

“Yeah…” I hesitantly agree. I don’t want my suspicions to be right. I don’t want him to be dead.

And yet… the feeling of dread only grows as the four of us arrive on the second guest floor. We step off the elevator and approach Rikizou’s door.

I start by knocking. He’d always respond within seconds. I wait. Ten seconds pass. Twenty. I knock again.

“Should we open it?” Toka asks.

I don’t respond. I wait a few more seconds before hesitantly placing my hand on the knob and turning.

“It’s locked,” I say as I realize it.

“Locked…” Reichiru approaches the door. “It’s a simple privacy lock. With the shape of the lock from this side, it can easily be picked using a coin. Does anyone have a Monocoin from the arcade?”

“...I might,” I recall. I step across the hallway and into my room. I check the pocket of one of my blazers, one I recall wearing one of the times I went to the arcade, and sure enough, there’s a couple Monocoins. I grab one and step back out.

I hand the Monocoin to Reichiru, who unlocks the door and opens it. I’m frozen in place as I watch the door swing open. We should go in now… but I can’t.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
_gunshot wound in head, mentions of suicide_

Everyone’s looking at me. Reichiru pushed it open for me to go first, but I can’t move my legs. I feel Toka’s hand on my shoulder and I take a deep breath. I nod and he removes his hand. I shakily step forwards into the room.

As I turn the corner past the bathroom, an expected but nonetheless shocking sight greets me.

Rikizou Nishida, the Ultimate Violinist, is dead.

_ding dong dong ding “A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the trial will begin!"_

“No…” I step back, steadying myself on the dresser behind me. The lighting change that always happens at the start of the investigation period only makes me feel worse.

“Upupupu!” That awful bear’s laugh isn’t even enough to tear my sight away from Rikizou’s body.

“What do you want?” Chiho asks Monokuma.

“Well, don’t cha remember the motive? Rikizou’s killer can get outta here, right now! Alright, who was it? Who’s gonna check out?”

The room falls silent. That’s enough to make me look at the others. No one’s stepping forwards…

“Who did it?” I ask. I’d be mad at them for killing after we all agreed not to, but… if they step up now, they might be able to get us help.

“No one’s stepping up? I wonder why!” Monokuma grins at us. “Looks like you might have to do the trial anyways! Blackened, I’ll give you one last chance to expose yourself! Once I’m out of this room, deal’s off!” Monokuma begins to slowly step towards the door.

Why isn’t anyone saying anything…?

“That’s it!” Monokuma shouts once he’s out of the room. “Trial’s on! Better get investigating if you wanna figure it out!” With that, he leaves down the hallway.

“Why didn’t anyone speak up?” Chiho asks the group. “What, do you want us to get killed?” She frustratedly rolls herself out of the room.

I sigh and reluctantly look back at Rikizou’s body. He’s really gone… it’s hard to believe that I’ll never hear his teasing, mocking tone ever again.

I sit down on the floor while Toka and Reichiru investigate the body and I take out my Monopad. Guess this is important to check…

_Monokuma File 05_  
_Victim: Rikizou Nishida_  
_Time of death: 2:53am_  
_Cause of death: gunshot wound_

So it was definitely a gunshot I heard… and it killed Rikizou. Who could have done it, though…

The thought crosses my mind that his door was locked. Did he… commit suicide? I’d have to investigate more to find out…

Once Reichiru and Toka are finished investigating the body, Toka leaves. Reichiru sticks around and looks at her Monopad, presumably at the Monokuma file. I hesitantly approach Rikizou’s body.

I kneel down next to where he’s collapsed. It looks like the bullet went right through his head… He was shot in the back of the head and it came out through his forehead. There’s a pistol on the floor, right by his hand.

Isn’t the back of the head a bit of a weird angle for suicide…? It doesn’t rule it out completely, but… I think there’s more to this.

I stand up straight again and look at the wall next to him. There’s a huge blood splatter… and a bullet embedded in the wall. It must be the one that went through his head…

I need to leave this room. I don’t think I can stay in here much longer… and I don’t think there’s anything else for me to look at.

“Ready to leave?” Reichiru asks when I turn away from Rikizou’s body.

“Yeah…” I answer.

“Do you have any ideas of where else to look?” She asks.

“Uh…” Where else might there be clues? “I noticed some stuff in the nurse’s office earlier. Might be a good idea to take a closer look…”

Reichiru nods and we leave Rikizou’s room together. We take the elevator down to the second floor and enter the nurse’s office.

“Earlier, I saw this blood…” I explain to Reichiru as I head over to where I saw it. “It looks like someone cleaned it away but missed some. And then there’s some paper towels with blood on them in the trash over here.”

“I see…” Reichiru observes everything I pointed out.

I look around again to see if there’s anything else. The remnants of blood on the floor look like streaks, as if something… or someone… was dragged across the floor.

Looking around the room, I notice something on the wall. Stepping closer, it looks like… a bullet hole? But there’s no bullet. There’s some traces of blood. This… doesn’t make sense. I only heard one gunshot… Would someone be able to recreate something like this without firing a gun?

When I turn back around, I see Reichiru leaving the room. I thought we were investigating together… I guess I’ll continue on my own. I leave the nurse’s office as well, trying to think of where else to look.

It’s unlikely, but… I remember the camera we set up in the basement. I doubt any of the crime would’ve taken place down there, considering all the evidence on these two floors, but it’s worth checking. I head for the elevator.

It seems Chiho had the same idea as me, because when the elevator opens, she’s inside, heading for the basement.

“Hey,” I greet.

“Hi.” She’s still upset, and understandably so. If this wasn’t a suicide, then the culprit signed us up to lose at least one more person by not revealing themselves at Monokuma’s request.

“You think of the camera footage too?” I ask.

“Yeah, I was planning on checking around the time of death,” she confirms as the elevator doors open.

We exit into the basement and she picks up the camera. She stops the recording and presses the button to view filmed clips.

“Even in fast forward mode, this’ll take a while,” she comments. “I’ll keep an eye on this and see if anything moves. You go ahead and look around anywhere else you want.”

I nod and step towards the other rooms in the basement. Would there be evidence in either of these…?

I check the laundry room first. There’s already been two cases in which the culprit did laundry to dispose of evidence… but there’s nothing here. No laundry running, no traces of blood, nothing out of the ordinary. I leave the laundry room to head for the housekeeping room.

It’s normal as well… I guess I didn’t expect to find anything, but I’m still frustrated. Do we have enough evidence to know what happened…? I kick a nearby housekeeping cart in frustration, and something falls out from the bottom, clattering to the floor.

“Huh…?” I kneel down to see what it was.

This is… what is this? It looks and feels like plastic. It’s clear and looks like it’s been melted and reformed into a small ragged shape. In the center, there’s a small chunk of metal… Through the plastic, I can’t tell what it is.

“What the fuck…?” I mutter to myself, turning the object over in my hands.

_"Erm, so ah... I'm getting tired of waiting. What say we just get started, hm? It's time for the long-awaited trial! Now then, please take the elevator to the roof! Puhuhu. See you soon!"_

I don’t have time to process what I just found. It’s time for the trial already… I leave the housekeeping room, get on the elevator with Chiho, and we’re taken up to the roof once again.


	21. Chapter 4: Trial

I don’t want to be here again… but we have no choice. We have to uncover the truth…

I step off the elevator and glance up at the dome. I doubt our idea about opening it up will go anywhere at this point… This time, the display is an endless sandy desert. Like the past trials, the sky is dark as if it were nighttime.

I walk up to my podium, glancing across at Rikizou’s crossed out portrait. It doesn’t feel right to be here without him… He helped a lot with past cases. So I need to find his killer.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _discussion of gunshots and suicide_

“Welcome to your fourth class trial!” Monokuma signals the start of the trial once everyone’s standing at their podiums. “You know how these go, your votes determine the results. Figure out ‘whodunnit,’ or you’ll all be punished and the blackened will check out! Now, get to it!”

I take it upon myself to start the discussion. “I’m guessing no one has an alibi, right?”

“I was asleep,” Toka states.

“I think we all were,” Chiho adds.

“I was woken up by the gunshot,” I mention. “Did anyone else hear it?”

“I did,” Reichiru mentions. “I didn’t see what time it was, but if I recall correctly, you mentioned it was sometime after 2am.”

“Yeah, I checked my clock. I didn’t see the minutes, but the hour was definitely 2…” Why didn’t I wake myself up and check properly? I guess it’s too late now…

“If none of us have alibis, that’s a dead end,” Chiho says. “But I think Rikizou committed suicide. That’s why no one stepped forwards when Monokuma asked who did it.”

“I disagree,” Reichiru counters. “I believe it was a murder staged to look like a suicide.”

“No, it was suicide,” Chiho insists. “I checked the camera footage from the basement. Rikizou went down there before he died, he got something from the red Monomaid--I think it was the gun he used to shoot himself.”

That’s right, Chiho was the one to check the footage…

“That makes sense,” I say. “I can’t think of anywhere else someone could’ve gotten a gun.”

“There is somewhere else that a gun could’ve been acquired,” Rechiru disputes. “Toka?”

“...Right. My talent item.” Toka nods. That’s right, as the Ultimate Hitman…

“Your talent item was a gun?” Chiho asks.

“Yeah. It’s the gun that was next to Rikizou’s body,” Toka confirms. “It was missing when I checked my room after we found his body.”

“How long was it missing for?” Reichiru asks.

“I don’t know, I saw it when we got here but haven’t checked since,” Toka explains. “I had no need to.”

“Fair enough,” Reichiru accepts his answer.

“So…” Chiho looks deep in thought. “Rikizou stole Toka’s gun and killed himself, then. Maybe he was doing something unrelated in the footage…”

“I don’t believe the entire crime took place within Rikizou’s room,” Reichiru counters. “There’s another room where something definitely happened.”

“Where?” Chiho looks confused.

She’s talking about… “The nurse’s office.”

“Exactly,” Reichiru nods. “There was blood on the floor, a bullet hole minus the bullet in the wall, and bloody paper towels in the trash. 

“So you think that’s where he was killed?” Toka asks.

“Yes. I heard the gunshot, and it was difficult to gauge where it came from, but I believe it was below where I was rather than above,” Reichiru explains. “Since I was in my room on the first guest floor, Rikizou’s room would’ve been a floor above me, whereas the nurse’s office would be below.”

“You’re unsure, though, right?” Chiho asks.

“Yes.” Reichiru nods. “It was hard to tell, and I was tired when I heard it so my memory might not be reliable.”

“So you think the killer framed it as a suicide?” Toka asks.

“Yes,” Reichiru nods once more. “In fact, Toka, I believe it may have been you.”

“Huh?” Toka looks at her, shocked.

“I believe you decided to take Rikizou up on the offer of killing him for the motive, but changed your mind for whatever reason. You then brought his body to his room and placed the gun there, framing it as a suicide,” Reichiru accuses.

“What about the blood in Rikizou’s room?” I ask, trying to defend Toka. I don’t think he did this…

“There’s fake blood in the dressing room because of Olivia’s talent,” Reichiru notes. “Anyone could’ve taken it, and Toka would’ve known what a blood splatter from shooting someone in the head would look like. He could best recreate it.”

“There was a bullet in the wall,” Toka points out.

“The bullet in the nurse’s office was missing, but the hole was clearly from a bullet,” Reichiru says.

“Could he have shoved it in the wall in Rikizou’s room though?” Chiho asks.

“No, I couldn’t,” Toka states. “Even if I could get it stuck in the wall, I couldn’t recreate the impact a gunshot would have.”

“Is there a way the one in the nurse’s office could’ve been fake?” I ask.

“No, that was definitely a bullet too,” Toka states. “There’s just… another thing. My gun, the one next to Rikizou’s body… it’s got a silencer.”

“A silencer…?” Then…

“The piece on the front, it covers almost the entire gunshot sound,” Toka explains. “Someone could’ve shot him with that and made it seem like there was only one gunshot.”

“So what about the gunshot we heard?” I ask.

“I believe that’s the one that killed Rikizou,” Reichiru states. “Toka would’ve known how the silencer worked and how to remove it. He shot Rikizou in the nurse’s office before bringing his body up to his room, staging it as a suicide, and shooting the wall with the silencer on to create the bullet hole in Rikizou’s wall.”

“Hold on,” Chiho cuts in. “Rikizou’s door was locked. It has to have been a suicide, how else would the killer escape?”

“Remember? Our rooms have a simple privacy lock, able to be locked or unlocked from the outside using a coin,” Reichiru states. “And there was a Monocoin on the floor outside of Toka’s room. It seems he accidentally dropped it after locking Rikizou’s door last night.”

Something about that doesn’t feel right…

Toka looks frustrated, but he’s not saying anything. Why isn’t he saying anything? Is he… the culprit? Or does he not have the evidence he needs to prove his innocence?

“How do we know the gunshot we heard is the one that killed Rikizou?” I ask.

“His time of death was 2:53am,” Reichiru recalls. “His cause of death was a gunshot wound. You said yourself that the time of the gunshot was after 2am.”

“Yeah, but if whoever’s behind this had a plan, they could’ve killed him within the same hour as a fake gunshot,” I counter. Is there any way to know what time the gunshot was…?

“Chiho, does the video footage from the camera have a timestamp on it?” I ask.

“Yeah, why?” Chiho looks at me.

“Did it record audio?” I might have an idea…

“I don’t think so…” Chiho frowns.

“No, it did,” Reichiru says. “That type of camera records audio but doesn’t have a speaker to play it back on.”

“Oh,” Chiho looks surprised. “Maybe we can find out what he was asking the Monomaid for.”

“Yeah, that too, but… I want to see if it picked up the gunshot sound,” I say.

“Good idea,” Toka compliments. “Can we watch it here though?”

“Of course we can!” Monokuma cuts in. He pulls out an SD card, presumably the one that was in the camera. I don’t know how he got a hold of it, but… in any case, he hops behind his pedestal and inserts the SD card somewhere. A section of the dome screen shows the clip.

The screen displays the red Monomaid standing in front of the door. A few seconds pass.

“Um…” Chiho coughs. “Can we… fast forward?”

“You sure? These _hours_ of Red standing there are _riveting!_ ” Monokuma comments sarcastically.

“Bring it to 2am,” Reichiru commands.

“Alright, alright!” Monokuma obliges.

A minute or so passes… still nothing.

“2:10,” Reichiru commands. Monokuma obliges. This goes on for the next few 10 minute segments until we reach 2:30am.

A couple seconds after 2:31am hits, a faint gunshot sound can be heard in the background of the recording.

“2:31…” Toka reads the timestamp.

“That’s…” Chiho frowns. “That’s definitely before his death…”

“That confirms there were two gunshots and the second one was silenced,” Reichiru states.

The video continues. I’m about to ask Monokuma to shut it off when a pair of legs step into frame. That’s…

“There it is,” Chiho says. “That’s when Rikizou went down there.”

 _“May I have a lighter?”_ Rikizou’s recorded voice rings out over the speakers. Only one of his arms hangs down by his side, like he’s holding something in the other. The Monomaid nods and walks off frame before returning and handing him something. The camera didn’t catch what it was.

 _“Thank you.”_ Rikizou steps out of frame.

“I think that’s all we need,” Reichiru comments a couple seconds later.

“Alright! Have fun with that information!” Monokuma shuts off the video.

“So the gunshot was well before his time of death,” I comment. “But he went to the basement after it, and not long before he died.”

“So I was wrong about him asking for a gun,” Chiho adds. “What did he need a lighter for?”

“Did anyone find a lighter?” Toka asks. No one responds.

“In any case,” Reichiru speaks after a short silence, “The gap in timing pokes holes in my original theory, but I still believe it to be a murder. The shot that killed Rikizou must’ve been the silent one. The gunshot wound suggests the bullet entered through the back of his head, an unusual angle for suicide.”

“Since when was Rikizou ‘usual’?” Chiho points out.

“He would be the kind of person to make his suicide seem like a murder,” Toka adds.

Maybe he would… but how do we know if he did…?

“Reichiru…” A horrible thought crosses my mind. “I… don’t mean to point any fingers, but… haven’t _you_ been accusing Toka pretty heavily this entire time?”

“I see. You think I’m the blackened,” she states calmly.

“I didn’t--”

“It’s okay,” she reassures me. “That’s what these trials are for. I didn’t kill Rikizou, but feel free to discuss as if I did if it helps you get closer to the truth.”

She’s so calm about this… I guess I’ll do as she says. “Well… you were talking about not wanting to die, and the way you phrased it made it seem like you were mostly concerned about yourself and not the rest of us. I don’t want to think you’d be the type of person to pass up an opportunity to get out without the rest of us dying, but…” I’m not sure how to continue.

“You were the one who knew about the door locks,” Toka adds. “But I guess anyone could’ve noticed that.”

“Maybe you felt bad for not stepping up when Monokuma asked, so now you’re trying to tell us you’re the killer without saying it,” Chiho suggests.

“You all bring up valid points,” Reichiru says. “So, do you think I did it? Does all the evidence line up in a way that shows I’m the likely culprit? Or do you trust the fact that I’m determined to reveal the identity of the Mastermind and let you all survive this?”

“I still think it was a suicide,” Chiho frowns.

“He really went to these lengths to make this shit hard for us…” Toka sighs.

“Is there a way for us to know he was the one who shot the gun in the nurse’s office?” Reichiru asks. “And if no one was killed there, we need an explanation for the blood. I don’t think anyone is currently injured…”

I glance around at the others. I don’t think anyone could be hiding an injury that made them bleed _that_ much…

I don’t know… but there is one piece of evidence we haven’t discussed yet.

“I’m not sure if this helps, but… Just before we got brought up here for the trial, I found something in the basement,” I state.

“What was it?” Toka asks.

“Why didn’t you bring it up sooner?” Chiho questions, seeming frustrated.

“I didn’t even know if it was relevant!” I defend. “But it was strange, so it might be worth taking a look at… Hidden in the bottom of one of the Monomaid’s housekeeping carts, there was this… chunk of plastic. It looked all melted and warped, and in the center there was a smaller chunk of metal.”

“What…?” Chiho looks baffled.

“I don’t know! It was just… there,” I say, just as confused as I’m making the rest of them.

“Can we see it?” Toka asks.

“I don’t have it,” I shrug.

“But I do!” Monokuma cuts in holding the exact thing I was talking about. He hands it to Toka.

“Strange…” Toka turns it over in his hands, looking closely. “That’s definitely a bullet. A used one.”

“Bullet…” I realize he’s talking about the chunk of metal.

“Why is it in a chunk of plastic?” Chiho asks as Toka hands her the object.

“Jinshi’s right, it looks like it was melted,” Toka comments.

“What melted it?” Chiho asks as she hands it off to Reichiru.

There has to be something…

“The lighter,” I say. “Rikizou asked for a lighter in the basement… he must’ve used it to melt plastic over the bullet.”

“This bullet must be from the wall in the nurse’s office,” Reichiru comments.

“What plastic though…?” Chiho asks. “Did he already ask for some from the Monomaid just to cover a bullet in it?”

What could the plastic have been…?

If the bullet was from the nurse’s office… and there was blood in there, but nobody was shot in there…

“A fake blood container,” I state.

“That… explains the blood in the nurse’s office,” Toka nods.

“If he were trying to frame the nurse’s office as a murder scene, he would need blood,” Reichiru says. “The only person here who would have noticed a container of fake blood missing is dead, so Rikizou would have been able to steal one without worry.”

“That checks out,” Chiho agrees. “But why would he melt it like that?”

“To get rid of the evidence,” I answer. “If he wanted to frame it like a murder, he couldn’t let anyone know he used fake blood in there. He had to make the container unrecognizable, and he needed to hide the extra bullet, too…”

“How could he have known no one would get up when they heard the gunshot?” Chiho asks.

“The motive,” Reichiru points out. “We all would’ve assumed a killer would step forward, so catching them after their crime wouldn’t matter. We assumed this trial would never happen.”

“He really thought this through…” Toka sighs.

“So… he killed himself and made it look like a murder that was staged as a suicide?” Chiho asks. “I don’t get him… I don’t get why he… moved Osami’s corpse before, either…”

“I think he was trying to frame me for murder, since he used my gun, put the coin outside my room, all that…” Toka points out. “Plus, he always tried to raise suspicion around my talent.”

“I think we know what happened, then,” Reichiru states.

“I’m still a little confused, how did he do all that in that time?” Chiho asks.

“Why don’t we go over this case from start to finish?” I suggest. Just like every trial before, I take the lead and summarize everything that happened.

“It all started yesterday, sometime after the motive was announced. The culprit snuck into Toka’s room and stole his talent item, a pistol with a silencer. They also snuck into the dressing room and stole a container of fake blood. The rest of the crime took place during nighttime.  
Sometime after 2am, the culprit took the gun and the fake blood container to the nurse’s office. They removed the silencer and shot the container to create a false crime scene. Two of us, me and Reichiru, heard this gunshot.  
The culprit used paper towels to clean up the fake blood. They left some traces on the floor to imitate a corpse being dragged, and removed the bullet from the wall.  
After that, the culprit brought the bullet and the fake blood container to the basement, where they asked the red Monomaid for a lighter. This interaction was caught on the camera we set up down there to film the door.  
They used the lighter to melt the fake blood container into an unrecognizable mess, concealing the used bullet inside. They hid this object in the bottom of a housekeeping cart, and hid the lighter in an unknown location where none of us could find it.  
Then, the culprit made their way up to the second guest floor. They left a Monocoin on the floor outside of Toka’s room before entering their own and locking the door. This is where they put the silencer back on the pistol and shot themselves in the back of the head, a purposefully odd angle for a suicide.  
The culprit who killed Rikizou last night must be… himself, Rikizou Nishida, the Ultimate Violinist.”

I can almost hear Rikizou semi-sarcastically praising me for putting all the pieces together. He must’ve known we’d be able to figure it out…

“Sounds like you’re ready to vote, huh?” Monokuma breaks the silence after my summary.

“Yes,” Reichiru nods. “I believe we are.”

“Upupupu, I wonder if you’ll get it right! Now then, use the lever in front of you to make your selection! Who will be chosen as the blackened?”

I select Rikizou as my vote.

The slot machine appears on the dome screen. The faces spin, and land on… Rikizou.

“Right again! Four in a row! The blackened in this case, the one who killed Rikizou Nishida, is none other than Rikizou himself!”

“If he killed himself, then…” Chiho starts. “Is there… no punishment?”

“Of course there’s a punishment, silly!” Monokuma grins. “There can’t be a trial without a punishment at the end!”

What…? But… “The killer is dead,” I state.

Awful images fill my mind of Monokuma bringing out Rikizou’s corpse and destroying it in some morbid way related to his talent. Just the thought is enough to make me feel sick. He better not…

“Actually, discussing suicide in the last trial gave me the chance to prepare something for if that did happen! Now then! I’ve prepared a very special punishment!”

There’s no specification about who it’s for like there usually is. I’m… terrified. He wouldn’t be killing any of us if we got it right… right? So… who’s this punishment for?

“Let’s give it everything we’ve got! It’s… PUNISHMENT TIIIME!!” A bright red button appears in front of Monokuma, and he swings a gavol down to hit it.

No one says a word. We’re all just staring at the dome screen, waiting for something to happen. The white Monomaid walks off on its own, this time without dragging a culprit along.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _small explosions_

_DEATH AT YOUR SERVICE_

_The scene begins with the banquet hall from the ground floor of the hotel. The nine Monomaids, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, indigo, purple, and white all file into the room and line up against one wall. Shortly after, twelve Monokumas rush in and fill all the seats._

_The Monokumas start to order the Monomaids to serve them. They order food, eat it quickly, and request more. Even with nine of them all working at once, it’s clear they’re straining to keep up._

_The Monokumas’ orders gain pace and the Monomaids are spilling food and drinks everywhere as they struggle to keep up. Some of the Monomaids are now working to clean the mess while the others continue to take orders._

_Suddenly, the red Monomaid overheats and explodes. The other Monomaids have to work around the exploded pieces, the yellow one taking to clean them up. The Monokumas start shouting at the Monomaids, complaining about the slower service as the pace of their orders steadily increases._

_The indigo Monomaid soon shares the red Monomaid’s fate. Exploding next to the green Monomaid, both are blown to bits at once. The yellow Monomaid continues to clean up the broken pieces of the exploded Monomaids before becoming overheated and exploding as well._

_One by one, the rest of the Monomaids fail to keep up with the Monokumas’ orders, each overheating and exploding. The Monokumas continue to yell at the remains of the Monomaids, outraged by their horrible service._

_The red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, indigo, purple, and white Monomaids are dead._

The Monomaids…?

Why…

I look around at the others. Everyone looks upset… but not as much as after the past executions. I feel the same…

The past ones were our friends, humans. We had gotten to know them, and all the blood made their deaths more gruesome. As for the Monomaids… they were robots without much personality. They only existed to serve us and couldn’t even talk. I don’t think anyone was incredibly attached to them, and the lack of blood made it easier to watch. It was still bad, but… better than what we’ve seen.

“We should go,” Toka suggests.

I nod and follow him onto the elevator with the others. I gaze across the trial room at Rikizou’s crossed out portrait as the doors close.


	22. Chapter 4: Post-Trial

The first thing I do after the trial is go back to my room. I need to rest after that. I lie on my bed and stare at the ceiling.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _mentions of suicide_

I think about Rikizou. I might’ve been the last person to talk to him… I don’t know if the others went to see him after we met in the library.

Was there anything I could’ve done to stop him from killing himself? I still don’t know why he did it… Is there a reason he didn’t want to escape the killing game? Or has he been suicidal all along…?

After a while of laying there, sad, frustrated, and wondering if there’s anything I could’ve done, I’m reminded that all I had to eat this morning was a bowl of cereal that I could hardly keep down. I leave my room and go to the ground floor.

I head to the banquet hall. Before I can step any further, I see a huge mess. Chunks of machinery and spilled food and drink litter the floor. It takes me a minute to realize… The Monomaids’ execution actually happened here, and it hasn’t been cleaned up yet.

I turn around and leave, heading into the dining hall instead. There’s no one here. I walk through and into the kitchen.

I decide to make myself some mac and cheese in the microwave. I don’t have the energy nor the cooking skills to make anything better. I sit in the dining hall and eat alone, bringing the dish back to the kitchen myself. It’s not a huge hassle, but I’ve gotten used to the Monomaids waiting on us hand and foot. It feels strange that they’re just suddenly gone…

The rest of the evening is uneventful. I shower and go to bed around the time of the nighttime announcement.

…

“Hey…” Chiho breaks the silence in the second floor’s seating area where she and Reichiru sit.

“What’s on your mind?” Reichiru asks.

“Why… Why were you so calm when they were suspecting you in the trial?”

“Acting defensive can be seen as more suspicious,” Reichiru states. “I knew I wasn’t the culprit, so I didn’t want to raise suspicion by frantically trying to defend myself.”

“Yeah, but… couldn’t accepting accusations come across as suspicious, too?”

“I suppose.” Reichiru leans back in her chair.

“I just don’t think I could be that calm in a situation like that,” Chiho sighs. “I just… I think I’d get too offended that anyone could think I’d kill. I feel like you all know me better than that.” She smiles slightly.

Reichiru doesn’t respond and Chiho’s smile falters. “You haven’t… killed before, have you?”

“Why, do you think I have?” Reichiru tilts her head.

“No… I don’t think so,” Chiho sighs. “I guess I’m just still kinda worried I don’t know you all as well as I think I do. After all, Becca admitted to killing her entire family…”

“I worry about that too. I… I don’t believe you’re the Mastermind, but I must admit that a kind girl with such strong anti-murder morals would be a good cover for someone behind a killing game.”

“Huh…?” Chiho speaks with fear in her voice.

“I don’t suspect you, it was just an observation. Besides, I’m more inclined to believe that the Mastermind is not one of the guests here… though I don’t think that would prevent us from finding out who they are,” Reichiru explains.

“Yeah,” Chiho nods. “I might not agree with Toka’s actions in the slightest, but I think I can trust that even he’s not the Mastermind.”

“You really dislike him ever since his talent was revealed, don’t you? Even after hearing out his reasoning.”

“Yeah… A good person would do whatever they could do avoid murder,” Chiho insists.

“A good person like Toka did what he felt was necessary to look after his sibling,” Reichiru counters. “Morals can fly out the window when you’re desperate.”

“Murder is _never_ necessary,” Chiho continues to insist.

“What if the victim was in pain, and treatment was nonexistent or inaccessible? What if the victim wanted to die to end the pain?”

Chiho gives Reichiru a sad look, but doesn’t say anything.

“You don’t have to answer. I’ll admit, that was a hard question and unfair of me to ask out of the blue. I’m not sure how I would answer it myself.” Reichiru smiles, hidden by her mask but visible through her eyes.

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

“Shall we?” Reichiru stands, gesturing to the elevator.

Chiho nods and they head to the elevator together.

“I apologize for interrogating you about your morals. In a situation like this, sometimes you have to think harder about these things than usual… I hope I didn’t take it too far,” Reichiru apologizes as the elevator ascends.

“It’s okay,” Chiho reassures her. “We’ve all got a lot on our minds after that trial.”

“Goodnight,” Reichiru says as they part ways.

“Night.” Chiho enters her room.

…

The Mastermind absentmindedly clicks a pen as they gaze blankly at the screens.

“Red?” They call out. Nothing happens.

“That’s right, Red is gone… All the Monomaids are dead… except that one.” The Mastermind sets the pen down on the desk in front of them as they think.

“I guess it’s almost time to bring this thing to an end… This one’s for you, Sawao.”


	23. Chapter 5: Day 1

_“Hello. Are you just as confused about this place as I am?”_

_“Uh… yeah…”_

_“My name is Rikizou Nishida. I’ll mention since it was on that note, so it’s probably relevant that I’m the Ultimate Violinist.”_

_“Um… Jinshi Hoshino. I’m the Ultimate Lucky Student.”_

_“Nice to meet you, Jinshi.”_

_What is this…_

_“I’m… gonna go. Don’t get yourself killed.”_

_“I can’t make any promises.”_

_… "Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

Huh? That was… a dream…

Rikizou was the first person I met here. He came across as nice and helpful at the beginning… but once murders started taking place, his irritating nature came out. But… it’s hard to imagine this place without him. I really felt like he’d be able to help us escape, somehow…

I close my eyes again. I don’t feel like getting up yet… I don’t even know what to do anymore. I manage to drift back off to sleep.

About two hours later, I wake up again and I’m not tired enough to sleep anymore. I sit up, take out my Monopad, and check out the map. Just like every other time, there’s a new floor. This one has a computer room and an art room… I decide to get up and get breakfast before checking them out.

When I get to the kitchen, Toka is pouring himself a bowl of cereal. He turns around when he hears me enter.

“Hey. Want some?” He offers me the box of cereal.

“Yeah, thanks.” I take it from him and pour myself a bowl before following him out to the dining hall.

I don’t know what to say, so I eat with Toka in silence. My mind is on everything that happened yesterday… How am I supposed to continue after all that?

We’ve wanted to prevent more deaths for a while now, but what have we been doing to stop them? We’ve made a couple efforts to figure out anything about the Mastermind, but we haven’t gotten anywhere. Even the camera we placed didn’t help with that at all, it only provided us with evidence for the trial… and the fact that Monokuma had the footage during the trial means the Mastermind definitely knew we put it there. I don’t think we’ll be able to get _anything_ past them…

“You wanna check out the new floor when you’re done?” Toka’s question interrupts my thoughts. I look at him and notice his bowl is empty.

“Uh… sure.” That’s right, the new floor… I don’t think it’ll help much towards the whole ‘who’s the Mastermind’ question, but it’s… something to do, at least.

I finish up my cereal and Toka and I both bring our bowls to the kitchen. We get on the elevator and head for the fourth entertainment floor.

When the elevator doors open to the hallway, we’re greeted by the sight of… a Monomaid.

“Huh…?” I voice my confusion as I stare at the Monomaid, this one half pink.

“I guess since this floor wasn’t open yet, this one’s still here,” Toka says.

“Makes sense…” It’s still strange to see one after all the others were destroyed so brutally just yesterday.

“Art room and computer room, huh?” Toka turns his focus away from the Monomaid, observing the two rooms on this floor.

“Yeah, I saw them on the map earlier,” I note. Toka heads into the art room and I follow him.

There’s various art supplies around the room. There are easels set up, canvases, pencils, paints, and several things I couldn’t name. I notice some supplies in the corner of the room that catches my eye… There’s large chunks of stone alongside some chisels and hammers.

“Looks like materials for making stone sculptures,” Toka comments.

“Yeah…” I remember not long after we got here, Akitsuna told me that he liked making stone and metal sculptures. Maybe the fact that this is on the last entertainment floor tells us that the Mastermind didn’t know he’d be dead by this point, or maybe it’s just to remind us that he’s gone.

“You ever painted before?” Toka asks, holding up a paintbrush across the room from me.

“Not that I remember. I did like, finger painting as a kid, but I don’t think I’m much of an artist…” I wish I could remember the past few years a little better, but from what I do remember, I doubt I was doing much painting.

“Not really my thing either.” Toka puts the paintbrush back where he found it. “Wanna check out the computer room now?”

I nod and we leave. We cross the hallway and enter the computer room.

There’s a large table set up in the center of the room with four desktop computers. Reichiru is sitting at one of them. Her screen is facing away from the entrance, so I can’t see what she’s doing. Toka walks past me and sits down at a computer, starting it up. I catch up and sit in the seat next to him.

“It looks like a high school computer,” I comment as I look at all the program shortcuts on the desktop. There’s Microsoft Office, some Adobe stuff like Photoshop… anything you could need for a school assignment. Even the desktop background has the Hope’s Peak Academy logo.

“Yeah…” Toka agrees with my statement as he clicks around.

He opens up the file explorer. There’s… almost nothing on here. There are two image files, and besides that, it’s just all the programs that have shortcuts on the desktop. Toka opens up both image files to take a look.

The first one is the desktop background containing the Hope’s Peak logo. The second one is a map of the hotel, nearly identical to the one on our Monopads… except one thing.

“Hey, can you zoom in right there?” I point at the hallway on the first guest floor. Toka obliges.

There’s a small box with blood pink text right outside Takeyo’s door in the hallway.

_First Victim: Akitsuna Miyabe_

“Weird…” I gaze at the text, wondering if there’s the same for everyone else.

As if reading my mind, Toka remains zoomed in and scrolls to the luggage room on the ground floor. Hatsumi’s name is there… He does the same for every other place we found a body. In the dressing room there’s Olivia’s name, in Osami’s room there’s his name, and in Rikizou’s room there’s his name. Then, he scrolls to the roof… Takeyo, Kaisuke, and Becca’s names are there.

Something occurs to me. “Hey, can you check the file information? I wanna see something…”

Toka closes the image viewer and pulls up the information for the image.

“Last edited… Day 16, 3:01am,” I read aloud. “It doesn’t have a proper date…”

Toka clicks on the date and time in the corner of the screen. “It’s day 17… Looks like someone set it to show this rather than the actual date.”

So… “Rikizou’s name was added right after he died.” I guess that makes sense… the Mastermind couldn’t know _that_ much in advance.

“Yeah, looks like it.” Toka clicks around through the files a little more, but there’s nothing else here.

I stand up and walk around the room a little. There’s not much here besides the computers… Walking around the table, I see what Reichiru’s working on. She has Photoshop open and she’s clicking around with some shapes… I guess she _is_ the Ultimate Graphic Designer.

“What are you making?” I ask, approaching behind her.

“Something,” she answers simply. “I’m not sure what it’ll be yet.” She continues to click and drag the shapes around as she speaks.

“Cool.” I stand there and watch her for a little.

She has a neon colour palette going on, but none of the colours clash. They all blend nicely together. Suddenly, she applies a filter and all the colours become much more muted. It’s even better than before… I’m not sure what she’s doing, but it looks nice. I guess that’s what graphic design is like.

She snaps her fingers twice, eyes still on the screen. The pink Monomaid enters the room and comes over to where we are.

“Strawberry lollipop, please.” Her focus on the screen doesn’t falter for a second as she speaks.

The pink Monomaid runs off before coming back a moment later holding a lollipop. It hands it to Reichiru.

“Thank you.” Reichiru unwraps the lollipop in one hand, using the other to pull down her mask before sticking it in her mouth. The entire time, her eyes are fixed on her project on the screen in front of her. That’s an insane amount of focus…

I decide to stop watching what Reichiru’s doing on the computer and leave for now. Toka’s already left… I look at the pink Monomaid in the hallway.

I guess I never really thought of it before, since there was a Monomaid for each floor, but can they move to different floors? If there’s only one now, would we be able to ask for its assistance on other floors? They have to be able to go somewhere, considering how we can request almost anything from them… I don’t even know where they get all these things.

“What are you lookin’ at?” The Monomaid speaks.

“Huh--?” I step back in shock. I thought they couldn’t speak…?

“You want something?” The Monomaid tilts its head.

“No, I just--I thought Monomaids couldn’t talk,” I explain.

“Monokuma can talk, can’t he? Why can’t we?” The Monomaid looks as if it were raising an eyebrow, though it doesn’t have any.

“That’s not what I meant--I just… didn’t think you guys had the ability to speak?” I’m suddenly really nervous.

“Haha, just messin’ with ya.” The Monomaid grins up at me. “Yup, I’m the only Monomaid that can speak. The others always talked back to Monokuma and… wait, I’m not supposed to tell you that! Nevermind that part. But they decided to punish them by taking away their speech! I was the only one that always agreed with them, I was always on board for this whole killing game and all their plans for it, haha!”

I’m still in awe that this Monomaid can talk. But… if the others had their speech taken away as a punishment, then they probably had as much personality as this one… and they’re all gone now, so we’ll never know what they were like.

Suddenly, I notice something about what the Monomaid said. “Wait--Monokuma and _who?”_

“Nope! Can’t tell ya that part!” The Monomaid makes a gesture as if zipping its mouth shut.

“Do you mean the Mastermind?”

“Well duh, but I’ll get punished worse than the other Monomaids if I tell ya who that is.” The Monomaid crosses its arms. “I might even be saying too much now. Better watch myself.”

This Monomaid knows the person we’re up against. Is there a way we can get that information from it? Even if there is some way to get it to tell us, it’d be punished by the Mastermind… Talking to it even just for a few minutes makes me feel guilty for considering that.

“Is the Mastermind one of the guests here?” I ask, testing how much information I can get easily.

“Is that a trick question? I think lowering it down that much would be enough for punishment. Sorry, don’t wanna get dismantled today.”

That response implies that the answer would lower it down significantly, doesn’t it? Either that or the Mastermind is really strict on what counts as lowering it down… If not someone here, it could be literally anyone outside of this place.

I decide to back off of Mastermind questions for now. “Uh… Monomaid--”

  
“I have a name, you know,” it interrupts me.

“Oh?” Do the Monomaids have names…?

I look down at the Monomaid and see it pointing at the name tag pinned to its uniform. It just says ‘Pink’...

“Right… Pink, do you mind if I ask--”

“I’m a Monomaid, request anything you want besides info on the Mastermind and I’m your guy.”

Guy…? I was thinking that it feels a little weird calling Pink an ‘it’ after talking to it like this… Does that give me an answer on what pronouns to use? Maybe I’ll ask that first.

“Right… Uh, Pink, what pronouns should I use for you? I kinda just resorted to ‘it’ for the Monomaids before, but…” I’m not sure how to finish the sentence. Would it be rude to address the fact that I didn’t know anything about the other Monomaids’ personalities? I sit down on the floor in front of Pink, getting closer to eye level.

“Nothin’ wrong with ‘it’,” Pink answers. “You can use anything, really. I’m programmed not to care much, but if I had to choose I’d go with ‘he’.”

He… I’ll stick with that for now. “Um… are you stuck on this floor, or can you go to the other floors?”

“Technically I can go to other floors, but I’m not programmed for everything there. I’m built for this floor so my functions are mainly computer maintenance and cleaning up art supplies. If you asked me to make you a coffee down on the second floor, I’d probably end up electrocuting myself,” Pink laughs. “I got some strength upgrades just recently, though, since I gotta take over White’s job on the roof if there’s another trial.”

That’s right, the white Monomaid would drag the killer off to their execution after each trial. Can there really be…

“Wait, if there’s not enough of us left for a body discovery announcement, would there be a trial?” There’s four of us left, so there couldn’t be three people besides the killer to discover a body unless someone else kills themselves.

“Hmm… I don’t think there’s a way I can answer that without breaking some kinda Monomaid rule. Once again, don’t wanna get dismantled today.”

“Fair enough…” I don’t think I have anything else to ask right now. I should tell the others about this, though…

“Thanks, Pink.” I stand up.

“No prob. Feel free to come back and talk to me anytime! I’ve been up here waiting for these trials to go by.”

I give him a small smile before turning around and getting on the elevator. I press the button for the ground floor. I guess Pink wouldn’t have the same cooking abilities as the orange Monomaid, so we still don’t have food service… I head to the kitchen.

As I walk inside, Chiho is taking something out of the oven. It smells amazing…

“Hey, Jinshi,” she greets as she closes the oven.

“Hi,” I respond. “What is that? It smells great,” I compliment.

“Thank you,” she smiles. “It’s brioche. My own recipe, my mom calls it ‘world-famous’ but all it’s really done is bring in a few more customers to the bakery.”

“That sounds like you’re underselling yourself,” I comment. “So, how many Monocoins do I need from the arcade to buy some?”

She laughs. “It’s on the house. Just needs a couple minutes to cool down.” She pauses for a moment. “Why don’t you go see if Reichiru and Toka want some?”

I nod and leave the kitchen. Is she finally making an effort to be friends with Toka? Or is she just being generous?

After finding the other two and heading back to the ground floor, we enter the dining hall to see Chiho bringing out the bread. She serves it to us as we sit down and we thank her.

“I didn’t end up seeing the new floor today,” Chiho mentions. “Did you guys check it out?”

“Yeah,” Toka answers.

“There’s a computer room and an art room,” Reichiru explains. “I didn’t see the art room, I spent most of the day in the computer room.”

“Makes sense with your talent,” Chiho comments.

“Did any of you guys spend much time around the pink Monomaid?” I’m wondering if anyone else noticed what I did…

“Pink…? Aren’t all the Monomaids dead?” Chiho furrows her brows.

“No, since this floor wasn’t available at the time of their punishment, this Monomaid is still intact,” Reichiru confirms. “And it can talk.”

“Wait, what?” Toka leans over the table to look at Reichiru.

“Yeah, I noticed that too,” I nod. “He knows who the Mastermind is, but won’t say anything. He was saying he’d get punished worse than the others if he told me…”

“Do you think we can find anything out from him?” Chiho asks.

“I believe it’s too afraid of the Mastermind to tell us anything, but it may be worth a shot,” Reichiru says. “We’ll have to be firm and persistent or we won’t get anywhere.”

“I wanna hear this for myself, can we go talk to it after this?” Toka asks, gesturing to the food.

“Yeah, me too…” Chiho bites her lip.

“Let’s do that,” I agree. “This bread is amazing, by the way, Chiho. Thanks again.” I smile at her.

“He’s right, this is really good,” Toka confirms before taking another bite of his. Reichiru nods to agree with us both.

“Oh, you’re welcome! I’m glad you like my baking.” She smiles back.

“You’re truly deserving of your ultimate title,” Reichiru compliments.

Once we’re all finished our food, we take the elevator together up to the fourth entertainment floor. We all approach the pink Monomaid.

“So… you can talk?” Toka starts.

“Yessir!” Pink confirms.

Toka does a double take before processing what he just saw. “Damn, I mean I believed you guys but for some reason I still wasn’t expecting it…”

“Come on, a mute Monomaid should be much more surprising! They all talked back to Monokuma and the Mastermind too much so they got their speech taken away! They’re all supposed to be like me by default!”

“So… they all had personalities, but we could never properly communicate with them…?” Chiho thinks aloud. “We bossed them around, ordered them to bring us things, treated them like objects…”

“Don’t worry about _that_ ,” Pink reassures. “That’s what Monomaids are for. We’re built to serve, just the others didn’t like--uhh, didn’t like the Mastermind as much as I do! And the Mastermind likes me too!” Pink grins up at us.

“Tell us who it is,” Reichiru commands.

“Nope! No way! Didn'tcha hear me last time? If I do that, I’ll be torn to pieces! I don’t feel like dying today!”

“You’re built to serve, yes? You’re designed to meet any request given to you. This is my request,” Reichiru explains. “I wish to know who the Mastermind is.”

Pink stares at Reichiru. His robotic face can’t convey emotion as much as a human’s can, but he almost looks conflicted. Maybe it’s his programming telling him to obey orders, trying to figure out whether Reichiru’s order to tell him or the Mastermind’s order to keep silent is more important…

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

A short pause follows the announcement. “Shouldn’t you all be getting to bed?” Pink asks, further ignoring Reichiru’s request.

Reichiru nods and silently leaves, closing the elevator before the rest of us can follow.

“Goodnight, Pink,” Chiho says before turning her wheelchair around towards the elevator.

“Nightnight!” Pink waves at the three of us. Toka and I wave back as we head onto the elevator together.

Reichiru was pretty persistent with her request… I guess that makes sense. If this Monomaid is determined to live, then he won’t give up that information easily. Still, is it okay to force him to answer when we know that he’ll die if he does? Learning he has a personality like this has made me much more sympathetic towards him.

Back in my room, I take a quick shower before heading to bed. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try talking to Pink more and seeing what I can learn…


	24. Chapter 5: Day 2

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

I’m not all that tired, so I get up and get dressed right away. I’m not particularly hungry either… I remember yesterday and decide to go to the fourth entertainment floor to talk to Pink.

When I get there, Chiho is sitting on the floor, her wheelchair folded together up against the wall. She’s talking to him…

“And my parents helped train her to help me out around the house.” I can hear the smile in her voice.

“Sounds cool! I’ve never met a dog before,” Pink says. Oh, she must be telling him about her mobility assistance dog… I can’t remember the name.

“Oh, good morning, Jinshi.” Chiho has turned to face me and smiles.

“Morning,” I greet as I approach the two.

“I was just telling Pink about Yori. I miss her a lot, but it’s nice to talk about her.”

I nod, thankful for the reminder of the dog’s name. I’d like to get out of this place and meet that dog…

“Thanks for listening to me ramble, Pink. It’s nice to have someone else to talk to, even if you do look a little too much like Monokuma for my liking…”

“No prob! And yeah, I get that a lot!” Pink grins at her. He… what? How many people has he talked to? Would just four of us be considered ‘a lot’?

My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of the elevator behind me. I turn around to see Reichiru stepping towards us.

“Reichiru! Do you need anything?” Pink greets her.

“No.” She faces us rather than him. “I came to see if you two wanted to come for breakfast. I made pancakes.”

“Oh, sure,” I agree.

Chiho nods and I offer to help her get back into her chair. She accepts my offer and we make our way down to the ground floor.

Toka is already in the dining hall when we get there. We all thank Reichiru for the food and begin to eat.

“About that Monomaid,” Reichiru starts. “We should push it further until it reveals who the Mastermind is.”

“We shouldn’t just kill him,” Chiho protests. “You heard what he said about being punished…”

“We have no choice,” Reichiru insists. “Pink is guaranteed to know who the Mastermind is. If we don’t take advantage of that, we may never know.”

“Can you hear what you’re saying?” Chiho frowns. “I… I know Pink’s a robot, but… after talking to him this morning, I don’t think it’s justifiable to kill him just to find out what he knows.”

“Chiho’s right,” Toka agrees. “Pink hasn’t done anything against us specifically besides helping out the Mastermind. He’s just a robot designed to do that, so even that much isn’t really his fault.”

“I guess it’s not hard to grow attached to a programmed personality, especially if you haven’t had someone new to talk to in weeks,” Reichiru considers. “I’ve been making an effort to avoid it so I wouldn’t feel bad forcing it to answer and die. But I guess… if you’re all attached to it, or rather, him… we can try to find a way to get information from him without forcing him to break one of the Mastermind’s rules.”

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” I agree. “We don’t have to directly find out who the Mastermind is, but we could find out something else, or learn other things that could bring us closer to escaping this place. Why don’t we talk to him after breakfast?”

The others agree and when we’re all finished eating, we head up to the fourth entertainment floor together. We bring Pink into the art room where we all sit around a table to talk to him.

“Can you tell us anything about this place without telling us who the Mastermind is?” Chiho asks.

“Depends what’cha wanna know!”

I recall something I’ve been wondering for a long time now. “Pink… Is the time shown on the clocks in here the same as the time outside of this place?”

“Of course it is! Why would it be different?”

“Just wondering… since we can’t actually see outside,” I explain.

“Has the Mastermind lied to us about anything besides their identity?” Toka asks.

“Hmmm… don’t think so!” Pink answers.

“You don’t think?” Reichiru tilts her head.

“Yeah! Well… no, actually, the Mastermind has lied! But only in trials! Never to the point of leading you guys to a wrong conclusion, obviously, but they’ve put evidence together in a different way to make the trials last longer! But they’ve never lied through Monokuma, not one bit!”

That… sounds like something Rikizou would do. Not only that, but…

“Wait a minute, if they haven’t lied through Monokuma but they have lied during trials…” I voice my thoughts.

“I caught that too,” Toka nods before turning back to Pink. “The Mastermind is one of the guests here, isn’t it?”

Pink widens his eyes. “I didn’t say that!”

“Tell us who the Mastermind is,” Reichiru commands.

“N-no, I… You don’t mean… This is a trick, isn’t it? I won’t fall for it!” Pink stares at Reichiru in fear.

“You’re getting on my nerves!” Monokuma interrupts as he enters the room.

“W-wait! I didn’t say anything, they misunderstood me! I didn’t say anything about the Mastermind being a guest, I swear!”

Monokuma ignores him and whistles, calling several more Monokumas into the room. I instinctively stand up and step backwards behind my chair, distancing myself from them.

“S-stop, you don’t have to do this! I didn’t break any rules!”

“You broke the rule of annoying me too much!” Monokuma looks about ready to send the other Monokumas to destroy Pink, but waits.

“N-no, take my voice away, make me silent like the other Monomaids! Just please don’t kill me!” Pink cries out in desperation.

Monokuma grins at him maliciously. “It’s… PUNISHMENT TIIIME!!”

On Monokuma’s signal, the other Monokumas rush forwards and start tearing Pink apart. Pink screams and yells in pain and terror as the Monokumas dismantle him piece by piece, destroying every last bit of him. He only stops screaming when one of the Monokumas crushes the mechanical voice box from inside his head.

Pink, the final Monomaid, is dead.

Leaving the destroyed remains of Pink on the floor, the extra Monokumas file out of the room. Monokuma turns back to face us.

“Good luck without any Monomaids left! Upupu, seeya later!” With that, he makes his way out of the room while the four of us stay where we are in shock.

A short silence follows. I can’t think of anything to say…

“Why couldn’t he have told us who the Mastermind was if he was gonna be dismantled anyways…” Reichiru looks extremely frustrated.

“He was probably panicking too much,” Chiho notes. “He hoped that defending himself might save his life. If he told us just then, there would’ve been no chance for him…”

“There was no chance anyways,” Reichiru snaps.

“He probably didn’t realize that,” Chiho defends.

Reichiru sighs and nods. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I was just frustrated…”

“Even if we still don’t know the Mastermind, we learned something from what he said,” Toka mentions. “If he was punished at that point, then it’s probably true that the Mastermind is a guest here.”

I… didn’t want that to be true, but I guess it makes sense… I glance around at the three people in front of me. Is it really… one of them?

“That still doesn’t tell us much, it’s not like the Mastermind is gonna reveal themselves now,” Chiho points out. “Our last lead is… dead.” She stares sadly at Pink’s remains on the floor.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t find something else,” I say. “We never expected to find a talking Monomaid, right? That means there could be something else that brings us even closer to knowing who the Mastermind is or finding a way out of this place. Something we haven’t even considered yet. We just need to keep an eye out.”

“He’s right,” Toka backs me up. “I think we should take it easy for today and look around more tomorrow. Maybe we can meet in the library at noon again.”

Everyone agrees and we disperse for the evening. I decide to head back to my room and lie down for a while. 

Is it really… one of us? I guess Toka’s right, if Pink was lying then he probably wouldn’t have been killed right away…

I remember my first thought after Pink’s description of the Mastermind lying during trials. Rikizou… is there a chance it could be him? But… he’s dead now. Is there a way he could’ve set this up to continue after his death? Even if there was… I don’t think it was him. I don’t know who it could be…

Thinking through all the guests and wondering who the Mastermind is isn’t doing me any good so I leave my room. I go to the ground floor and have a quick microwave meal for dinner on my own.

Back in my room after dinner, I take a shower. There’s a lot to think about, but my mind feels blank…

_“It is now 10pm. As such, it is officially nighttime. Soon the doors to the dining hall and banquet hall will be locked, and entry at that point is strictly prohibited. Okay then... Sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite...”_

After my shower, I go to bed in time with the nighttime announcement. I fall asleep pretty quickly.

…

_Knock knock knock._

What was… I’m slightly awoken by the knocking, but not enough to get up.

_Knock knock knock._

Okay, whoever’s here doesn’t seem to want to give up… I mumble out a “Hello?”

“Jinshi, I need to talk to you.” I hear Reichiru’s voice from the other side of the door.

“Reichiru…?” I drag myself out of bed and open the door.

On the other side, I see Reichiru. She’s holding a white envelope and a pink flash drive.

“What’s…” I’m too tired to finish asking her what’s going on.

“I was unable to sleep, so I went to the basement to do laundry. While I was down there, I found the off-limits door was open.”

That wakes me up more. “What? Did you go inside?”

“Yes. There was a desk, screens displaying the surveillance camera footage, a bathroom, and a morgue. These items stood out to me on the desk.” She holds up the envelope and flash drive. “I was going to wait until the morning to discuss it with the group, but I found myself even more unable to sleep after that.”

“Have you checked these out yet?” I ask, gesturing to the items she’s holding.

“No, I was planning to wait until everyone was awake for that as well.”

“Is the door still open?”

“Probably. I moved the trash can in the basement into the doorway. That’ll keep it open unless the Mastermind moves it back. Maybe not the best method, but… better than nothing.”

“Alright, I wanna see this room.” I step out into the hallway, closing my door behind me. “We should get the others…”

Reichiru nods. “I’ll get Chiho, you get Toka. We’ll meet in the basement.”

I nod and she heads onto the elevator while I turn towards Toka’s door. I walk up to it and knock.

It takes a moment, but Toka opens the door. “What’s up, Jinshi?” He rubs his eyes tiredly.

“The door in the basement is open,” I explain.

“Really?” Just as the news woke me up quickly, it does the same for him.

“Yeah, we’re meeting down there to check it out together.”

“Alright, let’s go.”

We head onto the elevator and it stops on the guest floor below us to collect Reichiru and Chiho. We then descend to the basement.


	25. Chapter 5: Day 3

As soon as the elevator opens to the basement, I see the off-limits door wide open. There’s a trash can placed in the doorway, just as Reichiru mentioned. We step off the elevator and approach the room.

I can already see inside through the doorway… Are we really allowed inside? I mean, if Reichiru has already entered the room and hasn’t been punished, it should be fine… I shouldn’t be so nervous, but I am.

Toka moves the trash can so that Chiho can fit her wheelchair through the doorway, and the four of us enter the room.

“I… don’t know if I wanna go in there,” Chiho says in a nervous tone, stopping near the door.

“You could watch the door,” Reichiru suggests. “Keep the trash can here to stop it from closing. Let us know if you see or hear anything strange.” She moves the trash can back into the doorway as she speaks.

Chiho nods and stays near the door while the rest of us step further into the room.

It’s nothing particularly extravagant, but it’s nicer than the rest of the basement. The walls are a dark slate grey. There’s a desk in the center of one of the walls with a big comfy chair and a huge setup of screens displaying every part of the hotel. This must be the surveillance camera footage…

“This is where I found the letter and the flash drive,” Reichiru notes, standing next to the desk.

I walk closer to see there’s a lot of papers scattered around the desk’s surface. It looks like most or all of them are information on the hotel, including a map with notes and sketches on it… It looks like this is where the Mastermind made plans to turn this hotel into a location for a killing game.

There’s a laptop on the desk. It looks like it’s plugged into a couple of things, but it’s closed. I try opening it and turning it on.

“It’s password protected,” I mention when I see it. “And the profile name is ‘Hirai’...”

“‘Hirai’? Do you know who that is?” Reichiru asks.

“No idea…” The name sounds familiar, but I can’t connect it to a face. It could’ve been someone I knew… or just someone I’d heard of.

I close the laptop and look across the desk once more. I notice a photo in a frame. It’s a picture of someone smiling… They have messy brown hair and narrow grey eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before.

I take a look under the desk before moving on. There’s a plush Monokuma… I’m a little startled at first before I realize it’s inanimate. I sigh and move on.

Across the room, there are two doors. Reichiru mentioned a bathroom and a morgue… Neither of them have signs or anything. They’re identical. Did she open them and look inside…? I guess there’s no way of telling which is which… I hesitantly open one of the doors.

To my relief, I opened the bathroom first. Toka peeks in behind me.

“Looks just like the ones in our rooms, huh?” He steps in past me to look around.

“Yeah, it’s identical,” I agree. I look closely to see if I can find anything out of the ordinary… but there’s nothing. We both step out of the room.

“This one’s the morgue,” Reichiru says, facing the other door.

“Do we have to look in there?” I sigh.

“I think it’s worth exploring everywhere we can,” Reichiru states. I nod, frowning, and turn back to the door.

Toka opens the door and walks in first. I follow him, Reichiru entering behind us.

It’s cold in here… I guess that’s how morgues are, though I’ve never been in one. I quickly count the lockers…

Fourteen. At first I assume that’s just how many the room was designed to have, but then I notice nameplates next to each locker. There were only ever twelve of us… Why are there two extras?

I step closer to read them. They look to be in alphabetical order by surname. Hatsumi, Becca, Asami…

Asami Fukuma? They didn’t misspell Osami’s name, did they? No, his surname is…

I go down the row of lockers and find his. It reads correctly, Osami Shimizu.

“Who’s ‘Asami Fukuma’?” I ask, stepping back towards the locker with that name.

“Isn’t she the singer in that band B.A.B.Y.?” Toka asks, looking confused.

“What…?” A band…

“I think Jinshi’s question was less of who she is and more of why there’s a locker with her name on it here,” Reichiru notes.

“Wait, what?” Toka walks over to where we are and sees what we’re talking about. “Damn…”

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _bullet wounds, rope marks, stab wounds, severe burns, severed head_

Reichiru opens the locker and I hesitantly watch. There’s a body inside… It’s covered by a sheet, which Reichiru lifts out of the way. The first thing I notice is a bullet wound in the center of her forehead.

“What the hell…” I can’t help but gaze at her lifeless form. There’s what looks like rope marks around her wrists… Was she tied up and killed here? What… is all this?

“She wasn’t even with us when we got here,” Toka mentions. “Who killed her?”

“I’d guess the Mastermind,” Reichiru states.

“Why…” I frown. I didn’t even know her, but I can’t stand looking at her corpse. I turn away and glance at the other lockers.

After looking over all the other names, I notice one more that seems out of place; Aki Takemoto. We look inside and see a corpse in a similar state to Asami’s, a bullet wound in his forehead and rope marks on his wrists.

I try not to think too hard about it. That gives an answer to why there’s fourteen lockers, but it brings even more questions…

I step away from the lockers for a moment when I notice something that seems strange for a morgue. It looks like… a dumpster? I walk over to it and look inside.

It’s… a pile of broken looking machinery and torn pieces of tiny maid outfits. This must be…

“The Monomaids’ remains,” Toka finishes my thought aloud, peeking over my shoulder.

“Yeah…” I sigh. I guess it’s fitting that they’re in the morgue, and since they weren’t human they wouldn’t be put in a locker… I turn back to the lockers.

A thought occurs to me and I open the locker with my name on it. It’s empty. I guess that makes sense.

I… don’t want to look in the others. I want to leave, but…

“We should check all of these in case there’s anything important,” Reichiru suggests.

I nod and nervously walk towards her. It looks like we’re going in order… Hatsumi’s body is exactly as we last saw it, stab wounds across her chest. She shouldn’t have died like that… we move on.

Becca’s corpse is hardly recognizable. She was completely fried in her execution… It’s hard to believe the charred remains I’m looking at now were once an energetic conspiracy theorist determined to get out of this place and take down the aliens.

We skip past Asami’s, mine, and Chiho’s, next checking Takeyo’s. Her execution was brutal… She’s torn to bits and it’s a difficult sight to see.

Next, we see Olivia’s. She’s still covered in blood, but it’s dried by now. I can almost let myself believe for a second that it’s just makeup, that in a moment she’s gonna move and laugh about tricking me again. That moment never comes.

We skip past Toka’s and see Akitsuna’s body next. I hardly even knew him… he was the first of us to die. He’s a little easier to look at since his hair hides most of his fatal wound.

Next is… Rikizou. It wasn’t long ago that we saw him like this on the floor of his own room. I wish I had the chance to talk to him more, to find out the reasons for what he did. I wish… I’d done something the last time I talked to him.

After him… Osami. There’s almost nothing on his corpse indicating his death. I… miss him a lot.

We skip Reichiru’s and Aki’s, finally seeing Kaisuke’s corpse. His head is completely severed… images of his execution fill my mind and I feel sick.

“I… need to get out of here,” I say.

“We’ve checked all of them, we have no reason to stay,” Reichiru states as she closes Kaisuke’s locker.

I nod and step out of the morgue first. It’s warm in the main area in comparison. I take a moment to lean against a wall near the entrance while Toka and Reichiru look around a little more.

“What did you see?” Chiho asks, noticing my expression.

“There’s… a morgue,” I answer. “It has everyone’s bodies. Basically the same as we last saw them.”

“Oh… that sounds awful,” Chiho gives a sympathetic look but I can tell she’s glad she didn’t come in with us.

I nod. “There’s also two other bodies in there, people we never met… Asami Fukuma and Aki Takemoto,” I explain. “They were both killed in the same way, shot in the head.”

“Strange…” Chiho frowns.

Shortly after, Reichiru and Toka come towards us.

“Did you find anything else?” I ask.

“There’s a closet over there,” Toka points to a corner of the room. “It’s got a buncha spare Monokumas, but none of them moved so I think we’re safe.”

“We should leave in case the Mastermind attempts to close the door,” Reichiru suggests.

“Good idea,” I agree and we all head out. We huddle together in the basement hallway, and the door automatically shuts behind us, swiftly knocking over the trash can.

“Good timing,” Toka huffs out a slightly alarmed laugh.

“You got those things from the room, right?” Chiho points at the letter and flash drive Reichiru holds.

“Yes. Maybe we should check them out now,” Reichiru suggests.

_"Good morning, everyone! It is now 8am and nighttime is officially over! Time to rise and shine! Get ready to greet another beee-yutiful day!"_

“Can we get breakfast first?” I ask. The morning announcement reminds me that I got up when Reichiru knocked on my door and it was still nighttime…

The others agree and we take the elevator up to the ground floor. We work together to make eggs and bacon with toast before bringing it out to the dining hall and eating together.

We don’t talk much during breakfast, but I assume all our minds are on the same thing; wondering what everything in that room meant and what we might find in the letter and on the flash drive.

When we’re finished eating, Reichiru pulls out the letter. We all huddle together with the letter in front of us, but with four of us it’s hard to all read at once.

“I can read it out loud,” Reichiru offers.

“Sounds good,” Toka agrees.

“‘Hey!’” Reichiru starts. “‘Guess you’re reading this ‘cause I’m dead. I mean, I don’t mind, since I’m more like Junko this way! I hope my execution was everything I wanted… or even better, that it wasn’t! How much despair would it bring to feel that disappointment in my last moments?’” She pauses after the first paragraph.

“What kind of person wrote this… and who’s ‘Junko’?” Chiho asks.

Reichiru shrugs and continues. “‘Anywho, that’s not what I’m writing about. I’m assuming if I’m dead, Seiki didn’t like her memories very much and won’t be helping me with a second killing game. Which is what I wanted to do!’”

“Wait a minute, Seiki?” I ask.

“Do you know who that is?” Toka asks.

“That’s… my sister’s name,” I answer. “I don’t know if it’s talking about the same Seiki… continue.”

“‘I mean, I had you kidnap all these loved ones for what, a motive? Two motives for that spirit medium? If that was all, then I would’ve let you kill the rest by now!’”

“Motive… are they talking about another killing game?” Toka asks.

“Seems like it,” Reichiru agrees.

“The comment about the spirit medium must be talking about Osami…” I frown. Loved ones… what does any of this mean?

Reichiru continues. “‘My plans were this: when Dead in the Water wraps up, Seiki and I come join you in that hotel, we get it all ready for a killing game, and then you could be part of it! Maybe killed off as an example or something. Wouldn’t be as big of a cast as usual, but it’d still be great!’” She pauses again between paragraphs.

“Seiki…” I don’t know who wrote this or why they’re talking about my sister… or at least someone with my sister’s name. Now that I think about it, even in my faded memories I don’t think I remember being with my sister at all for the past few years. Does she… have something to do with this?

“So there was another killing game,” Chiho comments.

“Wait, read that next bit.” Toka’s looking at the letter, so I’m guessing he read ahead a little.

Reichiru obliges. “‘Well, that plan doesn’t work if I’m dead, right? Since you’re already there watching over them, why don’t you just do it all for me?’”

“Looks like the Mastermind of that one planned out this one but knew they were gonna die,” Toka pieces together. “So they passed it onto someone else that they knew would get the job done. And that person must be the Mastermind here.”

I nod, agreeing with him. It still doesn’t tell us who it is… but it gives us more information.

Again, Reichiru continues. “‘There should be an extra note in that envelope with the login info for my blog so you can set it up to stream the whole thing online and post all the updates for my followers!’” As she reads that, Toka picks up the envelope and looks inside. It looks like there’s nothing left in there. “‘Keep in mind, if you don’t do this, you’re severely disappointing me. Thank you!! I plan to watch this thing from the afterlife, so you better make it good! - Hirai Ichizo.’”

“Hirai Ichizo…” I repeat.

“Isn’t Ichizo the name of the hotel?” Chiho asks.

“I thought I recognized it before, but I didn’t know where,” I mention. “I thought I’d just heard of the hotel before. But hearing it together, now, I’ve definitely heard of Hirai Ichizo before.”

“I haven’t, though his name was on the laptop in the basement,” Reichiru comments. 

“That’s right…” Whoever he is, he’s important to whatever’s going on here.

“There’s one last part,” Reichiru calls our attention back to the letter. “‘P.S. Bonus points if you can track down Jinshi Hoshino and get him in there.’”

“What?” I’m shocked at the sound of my name.

“Sounds like you weren’t captured with the rest of us at first,” Toka says.

“Why me, though…”

“You said the other person mentioned in the letter was your sister, right?” Chiho recalls. “This ‘Hirai Ichizo’ could’ve wanted you here because you’re her brother.”

My memories are still weak, but I’m hit with an overwhelming feeling that I was almost safe. That I’d acknowledged that this was happening, and believed I was safe from it. Somehow… the Mastermind found me, and brought me here. I wasn’t supposed to be here…

“It mentioned something about streaming online,” Chiho points out. “Hirai Ichizo has a blog… where this is all being streamed?”

“Who would want to watch something like this…” Reichiru wonders aloud.

“We should check out that flash drive, it might give us some answers,” Toka suggests.

We agree and the four of us take the elevator up to the fourth entertainment floor. We enter the computer room and bring chairs around one computer so we can all see the screen.

Reichiru plugs in the flash drive and opens its contents. We’re greeted by seven folders: ‘Chapter 1’, ‘Chapter 2’, ‘Chapter 3’, ‘Chapter 4’, ‘Chapter 5’, ‘Chapter 6’, and ‘Other’. Reichiru starts by opening ‘Chapter 1’.

Inside the folder, there are two PDF files and one MP4 file. The first PDF is titled ‘Rio Uchiyama’. Reichiru opens it and zooms in on the first page so we can all read it. There’s a picture of a person’s face and a bunch of text about them beside it.

“This looks… wait, isn’t that one of the people killed in the videos we saw for the first motive?” Toka asks.

“Yeah,” I confirm, recalling that video.

“There seems to be basic information about who they are and their appearance,” Reichiru summarizes. She clicks to the next page.

“What the--” I’m taken aback by the sight of their corpse. There’s a photo taking up the top half of the page, and several handwritten notes at the bottom about the way they died. There’s also notes about what evidence the culprit left behind…

“These look like they were scanned in,” Chiho comments. I notice what she means… These pages weren’t digitally created, they were written out on paper. I wonder where the original copies of these files are…

Reichiru clicks to the next page. This one looks like a lined sheet of paper, the handwriting notably different from the previous page. At the top, it says…

‘First motive loved one - Osami Shimizu, cousin  
successfully captured’

“This is Osami’s cousin…” I think aloud.

“‘First motive’? The letter mentioned something about a motive, too,” Chiho notes. “Then… we were all captured just for a motive in the killing game this person was in…”

I notice something further down on the page. It looks like predictions in two different people’s handwriting.

‘bashes someone’s head in with their telescope!’

‘Early victim’

“It looks like whoever wrote this made predictions for how Rio Uchiyama would behave in a killing game,” Reichiru observes. “There were two people. I think it’s reasonable to guess one of them was Hirai Ichizo.”

“Do you think the other one was…” Toka trails off and glances at me.

“It could’ve been Seiki,” I say. “I don’t know what she’s been up to. I hope she’s not involved with all this.”

The room falls silent for a moment before Reichiru moves onto the next file. This one’s about a girl named Chiyumi Sakuma. It looks like she was punished for killing Rio Uchiyama…

When we’re finished reading her file, Reichiru opens the video. It starts with the girl from the file in a trial room similar to the one on the roof, but it looks to be entirely indoors. She’s captured by chains and pulled out into a giant kitchen, placed into an oversized bowl of cake batter. It takes me a moment to realize what’s going on before the title card appears.

_RECIPE FOR DESPAIR_   
_The Ultimate Pastry Chef Chiyumi Sakuma’s Execution: Executed_

“Nope,” I say, reaching over to click the X in the corner of the video. I do not want to watch a video of an execution.

“Fair enough.” Reichiru closes the ‘Chapter 1’ folder and moves onto ‘Chapter 2’.

Just like the first one, there are two files titled with names and one video file. I recall the victim, Matt Williams, from one of the first motive videos as well… Takeyo knew him.

I also recognize the killer, Sachiko Osaki, from the videos. I look over at Chiho, recalling that she knew her.

“I’m okay,” she reassures. “Let’s just move on.”

We skip past the video and move onto the ‘Chapter 3’ folder. This one has… three files? ‘Fumie Fukuma’, ‘Sawao Yasuda’, and ‘Hitomi Takara’.

“Fumie? Thought it was Yumie…” Toka mutters.

“Hm?” I turn to face him.

“The Fukuma twins, from the band B.A.B.Y.. Yumie and Asami. Now that I think about it, she always looked so annoyed at interviews when people called her Yumie, but she never said anything… maybe she really is Fumie.”

Chiho giggles a little.

“What?” Toka raises an eyebrow.

“Nothing, I guess I just didn’t expect someone like you to be a fan of idol bands.”

“I’m not ashamed. Their music is good.” Toka smiles a little. It’s a nice moment to take our minds off of everything, but we’re quickly drawn back to looking at files about people who’ve died.

Fumie’s notes have two people listed… Asami Fukuma and Kaisuke Terada. It says that he styled her hair… I recall a conversation with Kaisuke from a while ago where he told me about styling for the band B.A.B.Y. and he mentioned Fumie by name.

“It’s probably as I thought, then…” Reichiru mutters. “I believe the motive we were captured for is this: in the killing game documented here, our loved ones were threatened with the possibility of us dying. The videos shown to us during our first motive were already recorded from that killing game, so we had no control over that, however they had control over our deaths. We found two unfamiliar corpses in the morgue, yes? I believe someone there killed after those two had died for the motive, before a third person in our group could be killed.”

“Makes sense,” Toka agrees. “So they gave us false hope.”

We move onto the next file in the folder, ‘Sawao Yasuda’. This one seems similar to the others, until Reichiru clicks to the page showing their death.

“Wait a minute, click back for a sec,” I say. She obliges. “That looks like a different person.”

“You’re right,” Toka agrees. “In the death photo, their face is… it looks all burnt.”

“They must’ve been disguised for one reason or another,” Reichiru states.

“Wait, isn’t that…” I notice something else while looking at the photo on the first page. “That’s the person that was in the picture frame in the basement.”

“Picture frame?” Chiho asks.

“Right, you didn’t see it since you were at the door,” Toka recalls. “There was a photo of that person on the Mastermind’s desk.”

“Do you think they have something to do with all this?” Chiho gazes at the screen.

“Maybe… Let’s keep looking,” I suggest.

Reichiru closes the file, but I notice something. “Hold on, was there a third page in there?”

“Oh- no, there wasn’t,” Reichiru answers as she reopens and checks.

That only makes me more confused, but I don’t say anything more. She moves onto the next file.

“Hitomi… she was the one who wrote those books Osami told me about.” I remember her from the videos, too… looks like she was the killer in this case.

We spend some time looking through the rest of the files. There’s a lot of people I don’t recognize, all of them somehow related to one of the people here. When Reichiru opens up the ‘Chapter 6’ folder, I notice there are a lot more files within.

“Wait, there’s Ko’s name,” Toka leans forwards. Reichiru opens the PDF titled ‘Ko Matsumoto’.

The PDF has the information sheet, but no death details. The second page is the motive notes, similar to the other files. If I’m reading this right, then…

“They killed someone?” I glance at Toka.

“It wasn’t their fault,” he jumps to his sibling’s defense.

“Guess murder runs in the family,” Chiho mutters under her breath before glancing at Toka. “Sorry.”

Toka shakes his head and ignores her comment, looking back to the screen. “There’s nothing about them dying, does that mean they got out of there?”

“I would assume so,” Reichiru comments. “Every other PDF had a death related page.”

“Let’s keep looking,” I suggest. Reichiru closes the PDF about Ko.

Back in the folder, I notice something now that I’m looking closer. “Seiki…” Reichiru opens up the file when I say my sister’s name.

“It’s only one page,” Reichiru notes when she finds she can’t click any further. All there is is the information page…

“That should mean she’s still alive, right?” I gaze at her picture on the screen. I may have never been all that close with her, but I hope I can see her again…

“Yeah, but it’s more evidence towards her having some part in all this,” Toka says. “She wouldn’t need to write motive and prediction notes for herself.”

I nod and Reichiru closes the file. I never thought Seiki would be the type of person to have anything to do with all this… I think about the letter again. It said something about her not liking her memories… What does that mean? Did she switch sides at some point? Did she have gaps in her memory like I do? Do… Do I have anything to do with this?

My mind is racing too much to focus much. All I really take in is that there were two other survivors, Hatsumi’s brother and Rikizou’s sister. My focus is brought back to the screen when Reichiru opens the file for Hirai Ichizo.

“This one has a death page,” Reichiru says as she clicks to the second page. It details an extravagant execution that runs through a portion of each previous blackened’s execution.

“He did mention in that letter that he’d be dead,” Chiho recalls.

After we skim through it together, Reichiru closes the PDF about Hirai. We skip past the video again and she opens up the final folder on the flash drive. This one has a single PDF titled ‘Danganronpa: Dead in the Water’. She opens it up.

We’re met with a photo of a cruise ship and some stylized text reading the same words as the file name.

“Dangan… Ronpa?” Toka reads the main title aloud.

Something about that title seems familiar. The more I recognize these things, the more scared I am that I have something to do with this. Maybe I just can’t remember the time I spent with Seiki, maybe we had something to do with each other behind all this…

The second page is a four by four grid of each person we just read files about. The only one missing is Sawao Yasuda… I take note of that as Reichiru clicks forwards.

The next sixteen pages are copies of each of the information sheets from the other PDFs. Again, there’s no Sawao. That person must’ve played some important role…

After those pages, Reichiru clicks to a page that looks like an advertisement for this killing game. It has the logo from the first page of the PDF.

I read the text aloud. “‘This new series of Danganronpa will be streamed LIVE on my website! Watch all the murders unfold through security camera footage! More despairful than ever, welcome to Danganronpa: Dead in the Water!’”

“Streamed…” Toka gazes at the screen. “So these are some form of entertainment for someone.”

“Not just some _one,_ a lot of people, if it’s being streamed…” Chiho frowns.

“There’s one more page,” Reichiru comments as she clicks to view it. It looks similar to the advertisement we just saw, but this one has a lot less text. The logo at the top looks similar, but the title text below the word ‘Danganronpa’ is blocked out.

I read it again. “‘Coming soon… Stay tuned for updates after Danganronpa: Dead in the Water!’”

“That’s probably talking about this killing game,” Reichiru comments.

“Yeah,” Toka agrees.

“That means this is probably being streamed too,” Chiho notes. “That Hirai person mentioned something about it in the letter.”

This is… a lot to take in. There’s people watching all this for entertainment…? I’d be baffled as to how people could find entertainment in watching something like this, but I know the Mastermind exists. If Hirai, at least one like-minded person also existed, there’s definitely more… probably enough that they’ve prevented us from getting saved.

After thinking for a little bit, I realize just how tired I am. Reichiru did wake me up pretty early…

“I’m gonna head back to my room and get some rest,” I say, standing up. “Let me know if you guys find anything else.”

Reichiru nods.

“Seeya,” Toka waves as I leave.

As soon as I make it back to my room, I crash onto my bed and fall asleep within seconds.

…

When I wake up, it’s already evening. I take a while to get up, still tired from my nap. Once I’m standing, my stomach lets out a loud grumble. I drag myself out of my room and head down to the ground floor to get some food.

No one else is around, so I eat on my own. I get back to thinking about my spotty memories, trying to pick out more details. I think the organization I was with did good, but there’s no way I can be sure with my memories this unclear… It’s possible they somehow convinced me that what they were doing was good when really it was killing games like this. Or they really could’ve been good, and these killing games were what they were fighting against…

When I’m finished my dinner, I walk out to the lobby and see Reichiru sitting alone. She has a lollipop and she’s staring off into space.

“You alright?” I ask, approaching her.

“Somewhat,” she replies. “I saw someone very important to me dead in those files.”

I widen my eyes in shock. I was tired when we were looking at them, so I don’t remember seeing her react strongly to any of them…

“I’m so sorry,” I say, taking a seat across from her.

“It’s alright. I knew it was likely for me to see that, it’s not your fault. It’s… Hirai Ichizo’s fault.” She puts her lollipop back in her mouth and crosses her arms, leaning back in her chair.

“Yeah,” I nod. I pause for a moment, gathering my thoughts. “We’ll find whoever he wrote that letter to. We’ll find the person responsible for all the deaths in this hotel and we’ll stop them.”

“Yes… I know we’ll uncover the truth.” She gives me a small smile.

She goes back to gazing at nothing in particular and I head back to my room for the evening. I take a shower and get dressed back into my normal clothes, my nap earlier making me not tired enough to go to sleep anytime soon.

I sit on my bed to dry my hair. I glance at the clock to check the time. It’s 9:59… the nighttime announcement should play any second.

I watch my window as the screen switches. Rather than showing a clip of Monokuma, it switches to the same shade of pink that glows through the hotel during murder investigations. I immediately stand up, trying to process this… it can’t be an investigation, there was no body discovery announcement.

I rush out into the hall and see Toka just outside his room, seeming to have the same reaction as me. I’m about to say something when the sound of the elevator arriving on this floor interrupts me. I see Chiho and Reichiru on the elevator, but what catches my attention the most is Monokuma stepping out.

“C’mon! Get on the elevator!”

I’m too shocked to question him and too scared to disobey, so I follow his order along with Toka.

The elevator doors close without Monokuma inside, and the four of us are brought upwards. Are we going… to the roof? I look at the others and they’re all as confused as me. The elevator ride is too short for me to find enough composure to say anything, and before I know it we’re on the roof.


	26. Chapter 5: Trial

I step off the elevator, entering the trial room on the roof. Confused, I approach my podium and take my place while the others do the same.

I take note of the dome screen display this time around. It almost seems like the dome isn’t there anymore… There’s a vast cityscape spreading as far as the eye can see, and it’s dark out like usual. It feels like exactly where this hotel would fit… The surrounding buildings all look abandoned or destroyed in some way or another. Some of them in the distance are still lit up. I almost wonder if there are people there before remembering it’s just a display.

“Welcome,” My attention is brought back to the circle when Monokuma speaks, “To the final class trial!”

“Final class trial…?” Reichiru repeats, questioning him.

“That’s what I said!” Monokuma pauses, giving us no explanation. “What’dya think of the Mastermind’s room?”

“It was alright… that’s besides the point,” I speak up. “Why is there a trial? What are we supposed to discuss?”

“C’mon, you’re smarter than that! Think about it, FINAL class trial, what’s the last thing you need to solve here? Who’s the final blackened, guilty of something arguably worse than the other ones?”

“The Mastermind…” Toka says.

“Exactly! Now get to it, who was it that planned this all, ran it from behind the scenes?”

“Wait, _arguably_ worse?” Chiho points out Monokuma’s phrasing. “How in any way would it _not_ be worse?”

“I guess, arguably, if the Mastermind hadn’t killed anyone themselves… but we know they did,” I note.

“I guess… but…” Chiho sighs. “I don’t know if I want to know what kind of person did all this.”

“You might not want to, but we don’t have a choice now,” Toka states.

Reichiru nods. “We should focus on uncovering the truth. What do we know about the Mastermind thus far?”

“Well… we know there was another killing game before this, with a bunch of people that we knew,” I state.

“Yeah, I think everyone here had some kind of connection to at least one person in that one,” Chiho adds.

“So the Mastermind, assuming it’s one of the participants in this killing game, must be connected to the Mastermind of that killing game,” Toka connects. “Hirai Ichizo, the one who wrote the letter telling them to run this.”

“In the files we found, there wasn’t anything about a connection in Hirai’s file,” I recall.

“The Mastermind would’ve removed a page if it revealed their connection to Hirai Ichizo,” Reichiru states.

“But… Hirai wouldn’t need to write about himself, would he?” Chiho asks. “If he ran the other killing game, he’d know everything, he wouldn’t need that stuff in a file.”

“Hirai didn’t necessarily write those notes on his own,” Toka points out. “There were two sets of handwriting, and Jinshi’s sister was probably involved.”

“Yeah, and she didn’t have a page like that either,” Chiho adds. “I don’t think either of them had motive notes at all.”

“You’re correct,” Reichiru admits. “If the files won’t tell us, what shall we discuss next?”

“Hmm…” Chiho bites her lip. “Isn’t there still a chance that the Mastermind isn’t one of us?” She glances around the room.

“I don’t think so,” Toka shakes his head. “Pink was punished right after letting that slip.”

“No, I mean… What if someone faked their death?” Chiho clarifies.

I think about that for a moment. We just saw all their corpses in the morgue, there’s no way… Is there?

As I’m considering the possibility, Reichiru launches into an explanation. “For each victim, I checked their pulses upon discovery. Seeing them again in the morgue, I have no doubt they were all certifiably dead as well as the same people we once knew. As for the executions, the fact that they were shown to us over the screens meant I was unable to check for pulses, but I could identify them all in the morgue. I’m certain none of them were false corpses or lookalikes.”

“I can back you up on that one,” Toka adds. “As much as I didn’t wanna look, I checked each body in the morgue. I don’t think anyone faked their death.”

“What if… the Mastermind had it set up so the killing game would continue after they died?” Chiho suggests. “Like if they programmed Monokuma to continue it without them.”

“That would mean Pink was set up to break a rule at a specific point,” Toka notes. “Everything would’ve had to be planned out.”

“Not necessarily,” Reichiru notes. “The Monokumas and Monomaids’ AIs are advanced enough to hold conversations and carry out actions upon request. It’s possible that the Monomaid’s AI happened to break a rule and the Monokuma’s AI recognized that, signalling for punishment. Though leaving something like that up to chance would be irresponsible, there would be a lot of places where things could go wrong.”

“We don’t know what kind of person this is, we don’t know whether they’d do something like that…” Chiho considers.

“True, but if they’re smart enough to run this entire killing game without getting found out, I’d think they’d be smart enough to see it through to the end,” Reichiru counters.

“I think Reichiru’s right,” I state. “If the Mastermind planned this out so meticulously, they probably wouldn’t leave stuff like that up to chance. It’s possible, but… I feel like we should think about other possibilities, too. Something might bring us closer to finding who it is.”

The room falls silent for a moment. I run through everything in my head, trying to figure out what to discuss next…

“Monokuma,” Chiho breaks the silence. “Can I ask… If it’s not one of the guests here, how are we supposed to vote for them at the end of the trial?”

“Great question! No need to worry about it, the Mastermind will absolutely be a voting option when we get to voting time!”

“So… if it’s someone outside of here, will another option be added?” Toka asks.

“No options will be added! Your voting options will be exactly the same as they always were!”

“But if they’re the same…” Chiho trails off.

“No voting options will be added! The Mastermind will be available as a voting option!” Monokuma restates what he said.

“He’s indirectly telling us it’s one of the guests,” Reichiru states.

“Why so indirectly?” Chiho glances between Reichiru and Monokuma.

“Telling us flat out would lower it down too much,” Toka explains. “It might be easy to figure out, but he’s still not gonna spell it out for us.”

Chiho nods, frowning. I can tell she hoped it would be someone else, and honestly, I did too… but I kinda know by now it has to be one of us.

“I’ve been considering the letter,” Reichiru redirects the conversation. “It mentions Jinshi by name.”

That’s right… “Hirai told the Mastermind to track me down…”

“Your sister clearly had something to do with the planning of the previous killing game,” Reichiru states. “I don’t believe this letter is addressed to you, due to the way you’re mentioned, however I believe it’s possible that you have something to do with this.”

“What…?” I guess I can see why she’s going down this track, but…

“She’s right,” Toka adds. “Even if you changed your mind like your sister supposedly did, you could’ve played a similar role to her. The letter mentioned something about her memories, right? She probably somehow forgot about helping out Hirai, and… Jinshi, aren’t your memories kinda spotty at best?”

I start to panic before taking a deep breath. I know I’m not guilty, and freaking out would just make it seem worse… Am I really involved with this somehow…?

“You guys were talking about programming Monokuma and the Monomaids to keep going with the killing game after the Mastermind’s death…” Chiho recalls. “What if… someone did that, but for the whole killing game? And… erased their own memory of it?” She says ‘someone,’ but it’s obvious she means me.

“No, that’s…” How did we get to this point? I need to think of some way to defend myself… 

Everyone’s looking at me. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I don’t care if I look weird, I need to think. I need to think…

“Reichiru said it herself, the letter wasn’t addressed to me,” I state as I open my eyes to face the group again. “Even if… Even if somehow I had something to do with this, I probably wasn’t the main Mastermind. Plus, why would the Mastermind have had to track me down if I were involved in any of this before? If I had some kind of connection to Seiki and the previous killing game, I wouldn’t have been a challenge to get here.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Reichiru admits, “I didn’t consider that. It doesn’t prevent me from suspecting you, but we can move on to discuss something else.”

Something else… What else can we discuss?

“Is there any way for us to know who was connected to Hirai without notes in those files?” Toka asks.

“No one has the same last name as him, right?” Chiho asks. “That probably rules out family relations…”

“That’s not necessarily true,” I counter. “That person… Rio Uchiyama, I think? Their file said they were Osami’s cousin. If they were cousins, they wouldn’t need the same last name.”

“That’s true… but cousins can look pretty different from each other, so if we don’t have names and we don’t have looks… I don’t think we can narrow that down,” Chiho frowns.

“What other ways were people connected?” I ask.

“Kaisuke’s name was on two files,” Toka notes. “Through working as a hairstylist, he was connected to Hitomi Takara and Fumie Fukuma.”

“Right, work through talents!” Chiho exclaims. “Like how I knew Sachiko through my work as a baker, and I knew Kan through his work as a dog groomer!”

“If you and Kaisuke both had multiple connections, then whoever’s connected to Hirai could also have more than one connection,” Reichiru considers. “They could easily hide behind a normal connection and claim they didn’t have any others.”

“Hirai was the Ultimate Blogger,” Toka recalls. “If we’re thinking on the track of talents, he’d be most likely to work with…” He glances at Reichiru.

“The Ultimate Graphic Designer,” She finishes for him, picking up on what he’s suggesting. “But many of the connections had nothing to do with talents.”

“Right.” Toka still seems suspicious, but drops it for the moment.

“What other connections do you guys remember from the files?” Chiho asks.

“Hatsumi had a brother, Rikizou had a sister, Becca and Akitsuna had that friend…” Toka lists them off from memory.

“You have a sibling, right?” I ask him.

“Yeah, Ko. I hope they’re alright…” Toka sighs. “I remember seeing Olivia’s name somewhere but I don’t remember who…”

“Isao Sonozaki, the Ultimate Magician,” Reichiru states. “They were close friends.”

“Right,” Toka nods. “And then Takeyo had an ex-boyfriend.”

“My name wasn’t listed, but of course there was my sister…” I trail off as I think of who we haven’t discussed yet.

“Reichiru,” I turn to face her. “You mentioned earlier… you saw someone close to you dead in those files, but I don’t remember seeing your name on any of the motive pages. Who were you connected to?”

Reichiru remains calm and silent as Toka and Chiho come to the same realization as me. I can’t be sure, but…

“I suppose… I haven’t told you yet. My bad. My connection… My loved one, lost to the previous killing game… was my dear best friend, Sawao.” She looks me in the eyes as she speaks.

Sawao… At first I’m relieved that the name she said wasn’t Hirai. It takes me a moment to remember who it is she’s talking about…

“That’s the person who was dressed as Hirai in the death photo,” Toka mentions.

“And there was a photo of them in the Mastermind’s room,” I add.

I can hear Reichiru’s breath from behind her mask. It’s almost as if she’s laughing… It slowly grows louder into quiet but clear breathy laughter.

“Reichiru…?” Chiho looks at her, concern clear in her voice.

“I should’ve known…” Reichiru speaks. We all stare at her, silent and listening. “I should’ve known that if I did this all for Sawao’s sake, they’d be the reason I was found out. I should’ve known. Heh… I suppose I did promise to help you uncover the truth, didn’t I?”

As we continue to stare at her in silence, she reaches into a pocket in her skirt and pulls out two hair clips in the shape of Monokuma’s face, each one of the halves forming a full bear face. She clips one onto each of the buns holding up part of her hair before reaching back into her pocket and pulling out a strawberry lollipop. She pulls down her mask and sticks the lollipop into her mouth.

“So you’re the one Hirai wrote that letter to,” Toka states.

“Indeed I am.” She takes the lollipop out of her mouth. “I’ll admit I was hoping for this to take longer, but it will be nice to get it over with. I suppose it’s time for my tragic backstory now, isn’t it? I’d assume you’d like some form of explanation, so before you ask me ‘How could you do this?’ ‘Why would you make us all kill each other?’ ‘What did we do to deserve this?’ I won’t waste your time.”

With that, she launches into an explanation. “I never wanted to get involved with him… Hirai Ichizo, Ultimate Blogger, Number One Fan of Junko Enoshima, the queen of despair, determined to plan a killing game and be just like her but too unstable to make it happen on his own… Even after his death he had to rely on others to carry out his plans. I never did it for him, though. I _hated_ that bastard and I still do to this day. He took away my beloved Sawao, my best friend, my closest companion… All because they were obsessed with him. They found his blog not long after he’d started it and followed him ever since. I followed them into despair, but never understood the fascination with Hirai. However… they were all I had, so I continued to support them.”

“Then… Hirai had met your sister, Jinshi. Seiki had the calm, rational, logical side that Hirai lacked. She helped him organize his thoughts and plans into something that could actually be a killing game. She helped him select the participants and they used Junko’s memory technology to alter their memories of the past five years - which, I’ll note, happened to all of you as well. I don’t want to explain that process, so just know it happened, and I’ll continue with this story.”

“One of these plans was his falsified death, for which Hirai posted a request on his blog for someone with a similar skin tone and identical measurements to act as his lookalike corpse. Sawao jumped on this opportunity, hoping to meet their idol and give their life for him. I helped measure them, and when I found their measurements matched his perfectly… I almost lied to them. I almost told them it was too far off, just to keep them for myself. But I knew that would break their heart… even with a decent ability to lie, I couldn’t keep that façade even if I tried. So I admitted that it was a perfect match, and before I knew it, we were on our way to the cruise ship on which Hirai was planning this killing game.”

“I wasn’t there for long, they didn’t need me there. I only came to accompany Sawao and to say goodbye. Somehow, I got more involved… I remember the start of that killing game. Or rather, just before the start of it. I met Hirai and Seiki, and then… Seiki changed her mind. She didn’t want to do the killing game anymore. She tried to stop Hirai, but everything was in place. The other participants were already asleep in their starting location, set to wake up within hours. They had planned to greet us before taking their own places in the scene and acting as if they had no idea what was going on. But Seiki turned against despair and tried to stop Hirai. He fought back, Sawao helped him, and acting quickly I helped restrain her as well. I just wanted to help Sawao…”

“Hirai wiped her memories of the past five years completely. There wasn’t enough time to replace her memories, so all she knew was her name, age, talent, and childhood. With one less person on his team, Hirai… I would say he asked me for help, but it was more that he assumed I was there to help him. Originally I wanted to refuse, but the look on Sawao’s face changed my mind. I knew this would make Sawao happy, so I had to do it.”

“Hirai handed me that letter with instruction to only open it after he was dead, and he sent me off to this hotel. Several loved ones had already been secured and kept in a coma-like state. My instructions were to kill them one at a time whenever I received the signal, and to avoid the spirit medium. I obliged, keeping Sawao in my mind the entire time. I only killed two for this, as it was the first motive and someone killed before I got to a third.”

“I continued to stay in that basement, watching the killing game broadcast. Seeing Sawao’s corpse made me realize how real it all was… I couldn’t go back to how things were. They were dead. All I could do was await the death of Hirai Ichizo.”

“Eventually, it came. The end of Danganronpa: Dead in the Water. Hirai had been executed, and I opened the letter. I couldn’t believe it… him asking me to carry on his plans… but I accepted, for Sawao. Hirai was Sawao’s idol, they would and did do anything for him. I knew… I needed to do this, for them. So I set up the hotel, tracked down Jinshi, and set this all up to be what’s now known as Danganronpa: Dead and Breakfast.”

“And that brings us to now. I take some pride in the fact that Hirai would’ve hated that I got figured out due to my connection to Sawao. Even now, this is being broadcasted to his fans. They probably hate me for how much I hate him, but I’m glad that he’s dead. I’m… glad…” With her mask still down, Reichiru grins, but tears begin to roll down her cheeks.

She’s finally stopped talking, but I don’t have anything to say. There’s so much running through my head… Seiki was involved in all this, but she turned away… Reichiru… Reichiru is the Mastermind.

“You killed people and forced people to kill each other just because your friend wanted you to?” Chiho frowns and glares at Reichiru.

“If that’s how you wish to put it, then yes.” Reichiru wipes a tear away. “Sawao was the only person that mattered to me, and now they’re gone. It feels almost… out of character for me to be so emotional and attached to someone, doesn’t it? I never let myself get so attached to anyone else.”

“I understand,” Toka says. “Emotions can drive you to make decisions that you wouldn’t normally make, but…” He shakes his head. “All this? You didn’t have to go this far.”

“As the Ultimate Hitman, you’ve killed approximately the same amount of people as I have, if you count the deaths I’ve caused through running this killing game,” Reichiru states.

“You could’ve walked away at any point,” Toka counters. “You could’ve stopped when you read that letter, woken the rest of us up, not turned this into a killing game. I didn’t have those kinds of options.”

Reichiru lets out a breathy laugh once again. “I guess we’re just different kinds of people then.”

The room falls silent. I’m trying to think of something to say, when I feel a drop of water on my hand.

“Is it raining?” Chiho asks.

I look around, and sure enough, it’s lightly raining. I look up into the sky. I didn’t fully process it before, but…

“The dome’s gone,” I point out.

“I thought it was just showing a cityscape…” Toka adds, observing the rain as well.

“Of course the dome’s gone,” Reichiru says. “This is the end, isn’t it? How are you supposed to leave if there’s a dome in the way?”

“...Leave?” I look at Reichiru.

“Yes. Well, I suppose it’s the end of the trial… Why don’t we get the voting over with and you can all go home?”

I stare at her blankly. Is this… really the end?

“Puhuhuhu! Looks like you’re ready to vote! Now then, use the lever in front of you to make your selection! Who will be chosen as the Mastermind?” Monokuma speaks up once again.

I select Reichiru as my vote, confused but not hesitant. The others do the same relatively quickly.

Rather than a section of the dome screen, as it’s no longer there, Monokuma holds up a Monopad that displays the familiar slot machine. This time, all three faces land on Reichiru, her portrait notably including the Monokuma clips in her hair.

“Congra-gra-gratulations! You got it right! The Ma-astermind of this killing game is none o- none other than Rei-i-ch…” Monokuma’s voice begins to glitch as he speaks.

“What…?” Chiho watches as sparks start to fly out of Monokuma.

“Ah. He’s not waterproof,” Reichiru explains. “In any case, it doesn’t matter. I don’t need him anymore.”

“Will there… be an execution?” As Toka asks, my stomach drops. I don’t want to see any more death, especially not another brutally theatrical execution…

“No.” Reichiru gives a slight smile. “That’s exactly how Hirai would want this to end, a grand execution to end the life of the Mastermind. I won’t give him that. I’ve let this build up for a dramatic moment where the survivors watch the Mastermind die as brutally as the Mastermind caused others to… but none of you want to see that. I don’t want to experience that. The audience wants it… but I don’t care what the audience wants. Sawao… I don’t think Sawao cares how I die, but I hope they’ll appreciate seeing me in the afterlife.”

Reichiru gives one last smile and sticks her lollipop back in her mouth, slowly stepping backwards away from her podium.

[TRIGGER WARNING] (skip past the next line if you don’t want any spoilers, but please read if you want to be prepared for any potentially triggering content.)  
 _suicide, falling off a building_

“Reichiru…?” I hesitantly call after her, unsure what she’s planning to do. She doesn’t respond.

Slowly, she reaches the edge of the roof. She pauses and we all stare at her as the rain starts to come down heavier.

“Goodbye, everyone.” She steps back once more, off the edge of the roof. There’s no railing to stop her, and she falls.

I instinctively rush over to the edge of the roof, but all I see is Reichiru falling. I catch myself early enough to look away as she hits the ground, but I hear the sound. I peek over the edge one last time, just to be sure…

Reichiru Shiroma, the Ultimate Graphic Designer and Mastermind, is dead.


	27. Ending

I’m in shock for a moment. I try to process the entirety of that trial but it’s pointless, my mind is racing too fast to form a coherent thought.

I’m able to focus on one thing… A sound, coming in from the distance. I turn around to be sure… it’s a helicopter.

I step closer to the center of the roof once more and watch as the helicopter comes closer. The rain is pouring down at this point and the three of us face the helicopter in silence as it approaches the roof.

When it’s close enough, I see a familiar face peek out, throwing down a ladder.

“Climb in!” Even without any recent memories, I’d know that voice anywhere.

“Seiki…!” I rush towards the ladder and start climbing.

I make it into the helicopter and see three other people. I recognize them…

“You’re… the other survivors,” I state, glancing between their faces.

“That’s right,” the boy that looks similar to Hatsumi says as he hands me a towel to dry off the rain. That must be her brother… Shōhei.

“Thank you for being friends with my brother!!” The teal haired girl dives in and hugs me. It takes me a minute to realize…

“You’re Rikizou’s sister, right?” Her name was… “Ayao?”

“Yeah!” She nods enthusiastically before her expression gains a tone of sadness. I guess if that whole thing was streamed live, these people probably know everything that happened…

The person with long brown hair… Toka’s sibling, Ko, hands me a piece of paper they were writing on. ‘You’ll be okay now. As far as we’ve found, Hirai didn’t have any other plans past this killing game, so we shouldn’t have to worry about another one.’

I nod and take a deep breath. It’s strange to be meeting new people for the first time in… a while.

It takes a bit to get Chiho into the helicopter, Toka helping her up. Once they’re both inside, Ko immediately rushes over to give Toka a hug. I show Chiho the note Ko handed me and she nods with a sad smile.

Once we’re all safely inside, the pilot flies us away. I recognize them as someone with the organization I was staying with before all this… I finally remember they were called the Future Foundation.

I think we’re safe now. I think… for the first time since this all started, I feel relieved.


End file.
